The Art of Misdirection
by Bob The Other Zombie
Summary: When Lily discovers her fated soulmate is none other than her friend's boyfriend James Potter, she does the only thing she can do- lie, and hope it's some kind of cosmic error. But in the ever complicated world of Hogwarts romance, nothing stays secret for long...
1. Chapter 1

In a world before the conventional soulmate tattoos, things were...different, to say the least. More confusing, less high-tech, more up to chance or bugs in the spell who you'd end up with. Before they'd started putting in the tattoos at birth, before the tattoos were even really trusted at all, every witch or wizard, once they came of age, had a choice: get the tattoo, or stay bare. Many chose to stay bare; there was a lot of superstition around that time and no one was too sure how the tattoos worked.

Lily Evans would never know for sure why she chose to get the tattoo.

Perhaps it was that she was Muggleborn- the concept was so interesting, so different, that she couldn't help but be curious. Perhaps it was that her love life was still hopeless almost a year after ending things with Ludo Bagman, and, as much as she hated to admit it, she was kind of ready for an easier solution. Perhaps it was James Potter's taunting eyes when he told her over the years how she never took chances, was too scared of the results. And okay, she liked to pretend he didn't affect her, but his taunts had a way of worming under her skin.

Either way, Lily found herself escorted by Madame Pomfrey to the Soulmate Tattoo Office of the Ministry, and sitting patiently for a few minutes while a bespectacled wizard performed complicated rituals over her wrist. The wizard wrapped it up in a bandage and patted it, smiling almost condescendingly at her. "It'll be sensitive to light for a few hours, so best to keep it under the bandage. The name will only appear once your soulmate's gotten their tattoo."

"What if I meet them before then?" asked Lily, stiffening a bit.

The wizard just smiled again as he laid her wrist back down on the table and began laboriously wiping down his wand. "You'll know." he said.

And she did. Well, at least she thought she did, the sudden warm, fizzy feeling on her wrist at the moment was in no way normal. But it just wasn't possible, not at all, that her soulmate could be-

James Potter grinned lazily at her. "Problem, Evans?"

"N-no." Lily said, still gaping at him. She shut her mouth quickly and scowled. "Nothing's wrong, Potter, until I saw you." With that, Lily stormed off, hoping he didn't detect anything amiss.

Behind her, she could feel his eyes boring into her back, but she ignored it and rubbed at her bandage. Her wrist was slowly cooling down again, returning to normal. Was it possible that it was just some sort of- weird reaction? A bit of random Hogwarts Magic or something? Could the tattoo be wrong?

She heard footsteps behind her, and tensed, walking faster to get away from him. But the hand that grabbed her arm to slow her down was small, soft, and distinctively not James's. "Lily, what's up?" asked Alice.

Lily bit back a snappish reply as she turned around. Alice was her friend, and it wasn't Alice's fault.. "It's James Potter, does anything have to be up?"

Alice frowned. "You two've been better, though, in the past month since he and Mary started dating. What happened now?"

"He just...we're always around them." muttered Lily. It was partially true- the Marauders hung out with Lily, Alice, and Mary way too much for Lily's liking. But they were surprisingly less obnoxious than they had been in previous years, especially James. Still, not being obnoxious was a whole other thing from being-

"Oh, you've got your tattoo." Alice said, grabbing Lily's bandaged wrist. Just like that, she was cheerfully onto another topic. "Any idea yet?"

Lily chewed her lip, wondering what to say. She hated lying to Alice **.** "Wizard said not to take it off for a bit." Which was true. "Apparently it's sensitive to light. Are you still not going to get yours? You've been seventeen for months."

"No." said Alice, looking down at the ground. "My parents don't want me to, they've heard some nasty stories about cursed tattoos. And what if it's not..."

Lily laughed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, Alice, you two've fancied each other since you set eyes on each other, there's no way you'll get anyone else's name on your wrist."

"You never know." Alice said quietly. "I...I don't know how he feels. He's always so quiet, you know, what if he likes someone else-"

"No, he doesn't." said Lily. "Alice, if there's anyone who are definitely soulmates, it's you two. God, you have no idea how much Mary and I hate it sometimes."

Alice looked down at the floor, pushing her hair out of her face. "Thanks, Lils. I'm sure you'll find a great one, too, when you meet them. And Mary- well, if James isn't it, she'll probably find hers, too."

Lily smiled, although she felt a tight knot of anxiety growing in her chest. "Thank you, Alice. Say, Mary hasn't told you what Emmeline told her this week yet, has she?"

* * *

Lily did her best to keep the tattoo off of her mind for the rest of the day, despite the curious whispers from people catching sight of her bandage. She avoided James whenever she could, afraid the strange reaction would happen again and confirm her worst fears, but thankfully, he didn't come over to talk to Mary at all. At lunch time, Lily ducked into the bathroom and peeled the bandage partially off her wrist, just to see.

It was blank. So apparently her soulmate didn't have their tattoo yet. Unfortunately, that didn't rule out James- his birthday was in two months at the end of March- but there were probably billions of people younger than Lily all over the world, and even more her age or older who weren't going to get their tattoo. Honestly, James Potter being her soulmate was pretty unlikely.

For the rest of the day, Lily kept her wrist covered and distracted herself with thoughts of Alice and Frank. They had been dancing around each other for years, and still, no amount of teasing from Lily and Mary convinced Alice that Frank definitely liked her. Alice may have been a master of Duelling and no strange to Gryffindor courage, but she was too shy for her own good when it came to boys.

"I'm telling you, he likes you!" Lily said that night. They were lounging in their room, putting off cleaning up the leftover wrapping paper from Lily's birthday celebration. "It's so obvious, Alice, he wants nothing more than to tear your shirt off with his teeth, but he thinks you're not interested! Back me up, Mary."

"Lily's right." said Mary. "Boys don't carry books for girls that they don't want to date or at least shag. Whenever a guy is unusually helpful, you know he's interested in you."

"I'm sorry, I just don't agree with you!" Alice brought her blanket up to her chest. "Frank is a nice guy, he's one of the only ones out there, he's just carrying my books to be a nice person!"

"Why is it only your books then, huh?" Lily asked. She rolled over onto her back. "Wish someone would carry my books for me."

Mary nudged her with one foot. "Well, you've got someone, you've got yourself a soulmate, only it's been covered all day. I bet they'll carry those books for you."

"Sorry, but this is how long I'm supposed to keep it on!" said Lily.

"Really?" asked Alice. "Amos barely even had his bandage on for an hour."

"Be quiet."

"Really, Lilz, why not just let it out?" asked Mary, sitting up with her arms around her knees.

Lily looked up at her, wondering if she should tell Mary. But no, the 'reaction' was just a mistake. "Because, I don't know, I don't want it to be a big deal. I want to know, yeah, but not everyone else has to."

"Well, they only show the name if your partner has gotten one, too." said Alice.

Lily snorted. "Great help, Alice. Either he's younger than me or isn't going to get one."

"So there isn't a name?" asked Mary, leaning forward.

"I- I don't know." said Lily. "I haven't looked under there at all yet!"

"One way to change that." Mary said, lunging forward.

Lily fell back, trying to get her off. "Mary! No!" she said, laughing. After a few minutes of battling over it, and Alice trying to break them up, Lily emerged victorious, pinning Mary to the sheets. She rolled off of her, wiping off her hands. "Fine, you two. I'll take it off, but if there's anyone embarrassing on there, I'm putting it back on and never taking it off again."

"He's your soulmate, he can't be embarrassing." said Mary, but there was a wicked grin on her face that told a different story.

Lily rolled her eyes at her and turned away to tear the bandage off.

"Here." she said, waving it towards her friends. "Have a look for yourself. It's blank **."**

Alice and Mary gasped as one and scrambled towards her to examine her wrist.

"Do you have any idea at all?" asked Alice breathlessly. "Did you- did you feel anything?"

Lily shook her head. "No, well, a little today, but I've heard it always goes haywire at first-"

"Well, not really." Mary said. "Who'd it go haywire around?"

Lily's mouth went dry, and somehow the partial truth came out of her. At least it would be ridiculous enough that they would believe her. "The Marauders." she said at last. "But you know that's ridiculous, the only one I even get along with is Remus and he-"

"Remus!" Alice squealed. "It must be Remus! You two will be lovely together!"

"No, no, no, it's obviously not him!" said Lily. "Because remember how we sort of kissed during one of Potter's parties thanks to that dumb game? I didn't feel a thing, and I would have if it were him!"

Mary tapped her chin. "Then who, Sirius? Because obviously it's not Potter, and I hope it's not Peter-"

"Honestly, I'd prefer Pettigrew to Black." said Lily. "At least you can trust Peter, he's not a bad guy. Black, on the other hand...I don't know what he's going to be doing with his future but I know it's not going to be good."

"Well, we could find out which one it is, couldn't we?" said Mary.

Lily eyed her. "I don't like the sound of that."

"Tough. Let's take you and your wrist downstairs, casually stand near them, and see if it happens again!"

Lily shook her head. "It's just supposed to happen once, it's not supposed to-"

"It might, you don't know that." said Alice, grabbing her arms and guiding her up and out of bed. "And isn't the reward worth it? Your soulmate, Lily!"

Lily sighed out a reluctant laugh. "Fine. But I'm putting the bandage back on." As long as they were discreet, everything would be fine.

Of course, with James Potter, there was never any such thing as discreet. Mary immediately went up to him, kissing him and wrapping an arm around him like the good girlfriend she was, leaving Lily and Alice standing in the background awkwardly **.** Lily waved at Remus, and Mary raised her eyebrows and cocked her head, as if pointing Lily in that direction.

Lily signed and went over to Remus. "Hey, you get the new patrol schedule yet?" she asked, wondering if her tone of voice was too casual.

He raised his eyebrows at her quizzically, but didn't say anything about it **.** "No, I think Kingsley was supposed to give that out tomorrow night."

"Right." said Lily, giving him her best smile. "I just wanted to check, that was all."

She looked over at Mary and Alice, shaking her head slightly, and Mary immediately grinned. "Hey, Lily, come over here!" she said, gesturing her over. "I want to tell you a secret!"

"We're not second-years, Mary." muttered Lily, rolling her eyes, but she obediently walked over towards Mary, only to have Mary accidentally shove her straight onto Sirius's lap.

He grinned at her. "Wotcher, Evans."

"Piss off, Black." Lily said, disentangling herself from him and sending Mary and Alice significant looks **.**

For once, however, James actually managed to pick up on what was going on. "What are you doing?" he asked, looking between his girlfriend and Lily. "Why all the glances?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Mary draped herself against him. "You're just imagining things."

"Really." said James. "So Evans's not getting into close proximity with all of my friends for some reason?"

Lily crossed her arms, levelling her gaze at him. "I wanted to ask Remus a question, thank you very much, it has nothing to do with you-"

"You pretty clearly knew the answer to that question already-"

"-and Mary just happened to trip me, it happens." Lily finished loudly. "If you weren't so busy thinking about yourself all the time, maybe you wouldn't think everything was a conspiracy!" Okay, so it didn't make much sense, but she was a bit flustered.

Alice, meanwhile, had maneuvered to be standing over by Peter, the last member of the group. "Lily, come on." she said. "Let's not start a fight. Let's go do something else, okay?" She reached out an arm, raising her eyebrows at Lily.

"See! There it is again!"

"Hate to say it, mate, but I think you're going crazy." said Sirius, tilting back in his chair and leaning one foot against the table. "They're girls, if they've got their secrets, it's got nothing to do with us." He tossed a wadded-up piece of paper across the table at Remus, and Remus deflected it without looking up from his homework.

Lily ignored the boys and walked over to Alice, standing next to Peter. She looked at Peter, then down at her wrist, then up at Alice and Mary again. This time, however, the Marauders were staring at her.

"See, she just did it again!" James said, pointing at her.

"Well, that was a bit weird..." murmured Remus.

"Yeah, she did!" Peter said. "She looked at me, and then she looked over at her friends-"

"No, no, no, I don't know what you're talking about-" said Mary.

"Yeah, Potter, you're being delusional." Lily said, putting her hands on her hips. James's eyes flicked from her face to the bandage on one wrist.

"You-" he said, and Lily traded an alarmed look with Mary while Alice's grip on her arm became painfully tight.

"No, it's not-" Mary began, rubbing his shoulders, but James wasn't listening.

"You got your soulmate tattoo!" he said, walking forward. He grabbed her wrist. "Evans got her soulmate tattoo! Come on, let's see!"

"No!" Lily said, ripping her wrist away. "That's none of your business, and anyways, I'm not supposed to take it off yet, it's sensitive to light or something."

James grinned. "But that's what you were doing here, you were trying to see-"

"Don't you dare get any ideas-"

"Okay, yes!" said Mary, running over to take James's arm before the fight could get much worse. "Lily thought it went off around one of you, so we wanted to test that out. But clearly, she was wrong, or the tattoo just malfunctioned because it was so new. Right, Lils?"

Lily held James's gaze, wondering if he'd felt even a hint of what she did this morning, even without the tattoo. His eyes were mocking, yes, but also curious. "Right." she said, dropping his eyes and turning back to Alice. "Clearly, I was mistaken. C'mon, Alice, let's go finish our homework."

"Are you sure?" called James, far too loudly for the personal matter they were discussing.

Lily stiffened and turned around. "Excuse me, Potter?" she asked, mustering the coldest tone of voice she knew.

"Are you sure it isn't one of us?" He grinned and spread his arms, and Mary buried her face in her hands, looking embarrassed. "Are you sure that Lily Evans isn't destined to end up with one of those no-good dirty Marauders?"

"Prongs." Remus said, and even Peter looked nervous. Sirius, however, was cackling as the whole Common Room turned to stare.

"What do you think you're doing?" hissed Lily.

"I just think people should know that Lily Evans thought her soulmate was a Marauder!" said James, turning to the room. Lily was incredibly grateful that most of Gryffindor was already in bed, otherwise she thought there might be a homicide on hand **.**

Instead, she just calmly crossed her arms. "What are you trying to prove?"

"Nothing." said James, still grinning. "Just think it's funny, that's all, after you've spent five and a half years pretending not to know us. C'mon, Mary. Stay down here with us."

"No, I'm going back upstairs." said Mary, stepping away from him.

James shrugged, and turned back to the Marauders. Lily raised her eyebrows at Mary, and Mary just rolled her eyes.

"He's like that." she whispered as she rejoined Lily and Alice.

Lily snorted. "You're telling me."

"Oh, please don't start fighting with him again!" said Alice. "You two finally settled down some this month, it'd be a pity for you to lose that again."

Lily sighed. "Yeah, I know,he started it."

"So you didn't feel anything?" Mary asked in a hushed voice. "Not anything at all?"

"Well- no, not really **.** " said Lily, rubbing her wrist, but some of her uncertainty must have shown in her face because Mary and Alice immediately lunged.

"Who was it?" Alice asked. "What did you feel?"

"Nothing at all, I just, it must've been a mistake this morning-"

"Yes, but who was it?" Mary said. When Lily didn't respond, she snorted. "Oh Merlin, I can't decide which one would be the worst soulmate for Lily! Sirius, probably-"

Lily laughed. "Yeah, I didn't feel a thing about Sirius-"

"No, it's James. Definitely James." said Alice. "He's the worst possible soulmate for Lily."

Mary was silent for a moment, and then she nodded. "Yeah, definitely. So what, Lily, was it James?"

"Uh- no." said Lily. "It wasn't."

Alice gasped, eyes going round. "It was Remus, wasn't it? I always knew, you two always had a little-"

"No, no, no, it wasn't!" said Lily. While Remus was probably the most likely of the answers, she just- since they were friends and all, she didn't want to make things weird.

Mary and Alice gasped simultaneously and stared at each other.

"Peter Pettigrew." whispered Alice.

"I- I don't believe it." Mary ran a hand through her hair. "Your soulmate is- is Peter Pettigrew."

"I..." Lily squeezed her eyes shut. They clearly thought it was one of the Marauders, and better Peter than James. "Yes, okay. My soulmate is Peter Pettigrew. Let's just- keep this quiet, all right?"

Mary and Alice were still staring at each other, and Lily growled **.** "Look, I don't want to talk about it. Clearly it's one of those ones that's supposed to take time, so let's just- let it take time, okay?"

"Fine." said Mary, and Alice nodded, but they continued giving her sideways looks throughout the rest of the week.


	2. Chapter 2

Lily found it hard to concentrate on homework the next night. She was usually a reasonably hardworking student, if the type to forget a few homework assignments every now and then, but that night, she just could not get in the mood. The worry about her tattoo and the weird reaction earlier still gnawed at her. She rested her head in her hands, looking across the room to where the Marauders were huddled. Lily had never truly considered the possibility of her tattoo making a mistake, but this had to be one. For all his asking her out before, James was completely unsuited for her. He may have been attractive, but he was self-absorbed, disrespectful, and careless. The two of them were just too different for it to be true, and that wasn't even going into the fact that he was a month into a relationship with Lily's best friend.

It wasn't ideal, it wasn't ideal at all. And beyond that, it made no sense. Lily hadn't liked James, ever. Why would she get a soulmate she was never even attracted to?

He waved at her, and Lily blinked, realizing she'd been staring. She quickly ducked her head back down to her books, but it was too late- a moment later, he had dropped down into the seat across from her.

"Like what you see, Evans?"

"Just keeping an eye on some troublemakers." Lily growled. "You're dating my best friend, Potter, don't you think you should stop flirting with me?"

"Not when it gets such a lovely reaction." James said, leaning forward. "So, which one of us is it?"

"What?" Lily's pulse pounded in her temples.

"I'm not dumb, Evans." said James."After what happened yesterday, and now you staring at us, I think I can figure out what's going on."

Lily rolled her eyes. "You're projecting, Potter. You want me to be a Marauder's soulmate, because then you could embarass me for it."

"And you still have yet to come up with a good explanation." said James. "Let's see, it can't have been Moony or Padfoot, because you wouldn't have tried Peter afterwards, so that leaves..."

"Not you." hissed Lily. "And I wasn't staring!"

James's eyes had gone wide and too late, Lily realized what she had just implied for the second time. "You and Wormy? Well, I can't say I expected it, but he's a nice enough bloke and he's always taken after me in some ways, so I guess-"

"I wasn't staring!" Lily snapped. This rumor was getting out of control fast. "I wasn't, I- I was just thinking."

James raised an eyebrow. "About?"

"None of your business." Lily said, turning back to her homework.

"About Peter?" asked James, and she could hear the cocky grin in his voice. "About how much you're in love with him, because he's your soulmate? You like him already, don't you? I should go tell him right now-"

Lily all but dived across the table to drag him back into his seat, gripping his arm tightly. "No, no, Potter, please!" Lily wracked her brain for something, anything to save her from this humiliation. "Frank and Alice!"

James turned back to her, smirk slipping. "What?"

"What I was thinking about." Lily said, words falling out in a rush. "They're- they're so in love with each other, and neither of them realizes it, and they're both afraid to make a move because they think the other doesn't like them so they might never get together!" She stopped, taking a breath. "I was- I was spacing out thinking about them. Sorry if you got the wrong idea." she added, trying to inject venom in her voice again so she could regain a little control of this conversation.

She expected James to leave, but instead, he leaned forward conspiratorially. "You ever considered setting them up?"

"Setting them up?" Lily asked, caught off guard.

"Yeah, like, locking them in a broom closet or something." said James. "I could help you with that."

Lily blinked. "Really?"

"Sure, yeah, Alice is my friend, too, remember?" said James. "And if it goes well, I could use your help, I've got two friends who need it."

"Really?" Lily asked. "Who?"

James lifted a finger. "I'm not going to say any genders or names, yet. I'm just saying, I help you sort out your problems, and you help me with mine." He grinned. "We'll be like human Love Potions."

Lily snorted. "Never would've expected the two of us to end up being compared to Love Potions."

James's smile fell from his face, and there was a decidedly awkward pause before he stood up. "So it's decided. We'll get your friends together, and then my friends together, and then we'll all be in one happy family." He nodded at her. "Nice talking to you, Mrs. Pettigrew."

"I'm not-" Lily sighed, rubbing her forehead, and decided to give in. "You won't tell anyone, will you? Since neither of us- feel that way, I'd prefer he not find out. It would be too weird."

To her surprise, James nodded. "But you know he'll find out eventually?" He leaned over the table and lowered his voice. "Pete's a good guy, I don't want him thinking his soulmate doesn't have him."

Lily waved her hand at him. "Yeah, I'll- deal with that when it happens." she said, and he winked at her and walked back to where the Marauders sat. Lily pushed her hair out of her face and turned back to her homework, but after a few minutes, realized she couldn't concentrate at all. The conversation with James had ruined any chance of that.

Stupid Potter. Stupid tattoo. Stupid soulmate.

* * *

Frank and Alice met each other before either of them met Lily. When Lily and Severus were jammed unhappily into a boat with James Potter and Sirius Black, Alice and Mary (who had known each other since they were very young) found a boat with Mary's cousin Marlene Mckinnon, and then Frank Longbottom, a bit overwhelmed by the crush of strangers around him, stumbled into it and almost capsized the entire thing.

Lily found out the story a few months later after Marlene and Frank were sorted into Hufflepuff and Lily, Mary, and Alice became close friends- she asked one day why they talked to Marlene and Frank and Ludo so much, and Mary related the whole story of how they met Frank, snickering the whole time.

"He was nervous!" Alice said, sending her friend a chiding look.

Lily glanced between them cautiously, worried about upsetting her new friends, but Mary just rolled her eyes. "He's clumsy, Alice, even you have to admit that."

That was the first night Lily should've known Alice had some sort of feelings for Frank, although, at the time, she just thought it was odd how close they'd gotten for two members of different Houses. It wasn't until puberty properly started and they all began cycling through embarrassing crushes and even more embarrassing boyfriends that Lily began to wonder. She knew she wasn't the only one, Mary's facial expressions whenever Alice was talking to or about Frank were a glory to behold. When questioned, however, Alice would just sigh and shake her head with a smile, or insist weakly that it "wasn't like that", even though it clearly was. It wasn't until earlier sixth year, when Alice was about to turn seventeen, that she finally broke down and admitted something.

Lily, Alice, and Mary stayed up late that night, talking and enjoying themselves while Mary and Lily tried to tease gift ideas out of Alice.

"It's a big one." Mary said, flopping across the bed and resting her chin in her hands. "Seventeen, Alice, you're old!"

"Yeah, you're an adult now, you can do anything you want." Lily said, grinning slyly. "Our Alice, the little risk taker."

Alice huffed a laugh. Mary had bummed some Firewhiskey off of James for the night, so they were all pleasantly warm and loose. "It's not that big a deal. We'll still be at Hogwarts for the next year and a half."

"Yeah, but you could get your tattoo soon." said Mary, waggling her eyebrows.

Alice didn't respond, picking at her sheets, and Lily leaned forward. "Are you gonna get your tattoo?" she asked.

Alice shrugged, and Lily and Mary traded glances.

"I mean, it's your choice..." Lily said.

"But don't you want to know?" Mary burst out.

"I..." Alice looked up at them, meeting their eyes for a few seconds. "I mean, I want to, but..."

Lily reached across the gap in between the beds and squeezed her wrist. "No one's forcing you to, if you'd rather just leave it up to chance."

"I don't know, I've heard some bad things about them messing up." Alice looked down at her hands again. "And I'm not sure if I'd want someone who's not..." She trailed off.

Mary, of course, jumped on the statement at once. "Alice! Are you implying that your feelings for a certain Hufflepuff might not be as platonic as you'd have us believe?"

Alice pushed down at her sheets, hunching her shoulders. "I...maybe. I just-"

"I knew it!" Mary said.

Lily grinned, leaning back against her headboard. "We've known that for years, Alice, no need for the explanation."

Alice shot them a look, but it dissolved into a smile. "Okay, yeah. It's just that..." Her smile faded. "You know, you'd think if he felt the same way, he'd do something about it by now."

"He's shy, Alice." said Lily.

Mary nodded, waving a hand. "He likes you, that's ridiculous. He probably feels as nervous as you do. Plus, if you get the tattoo and it's him, that'll be one way to approach the conversation, right?"

"But what if it's not?" Alice said quietly. "Or what if it is, but he has someone else? I don't think- don't think I would want to know if-"

"There's no way." said Lily. "You two are the most obvious pair I know."

Alice shrugged, still staring at the bed, and afterwards the conversation moved to Mary and James's developing romance, and that was all they got out of her for a few months. Lily knew Frank liked her back, knew they would be very happy together, but she had no idea how to get the two of them to admit it. The problem was that the risk of them being wrong for each other was real, if incredibly unlikely, and she didn't want to force either of them into it, so she just had to find some way to convince them that taking the chance was better than just letting the opportunity go by.

She and James had their first unofficial matchmaker's meeting on another one of her late nights- or, rather, he invaded her table once more after the other Marauders went to sleep.

"What do you want?" she asked without looking up.

James didn't seem bothered by her tone of voice at all. "Thought you wanted to figure out your problem." he said, and Lily glanced up. "Your Frank and Alice problem?"

"Oh, right." Lily shut her book and lowered her voice. "Aren't your friends going to wonder where you are?"

"Nah, told them I've got Quidditch strategies to look over." said James. "I'm sacrificing Quidditch strategies for this, so you'd better be grateful."

Lily snorted. "Quidditch strategies almost seems like an oxymoron."

James grinned. "Oh, don't play that game, I've seen you at practice and matches, you love it just as much as the rest of the wizard population does."

"Fine." Lily said, rolling her eyes. "But for the record, that's only because Mary's on the team, not-"

"Relax, relax, I wasn't trying to imply anything." said James, raising her hands.

Lily fixed him with a look, raising one eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah, we're trying to get along, remember?" said James. "I know I bothered and fancied you for about a year, but that is over now."

"Right." said Lily, smiling through the brief strained silence. "Well, then, since you're the matchmaker, you wanna tell me what ideas you've come up with?"

James rested his elbows on the table, lacing his fingers together. "First tell me some more about their relationship, and then the Love Healer will figure out the best medicine."

Lily couldn't help but giggle. "No, that's a horrible name, I refuse to talk to you when you're calling yourself that."

James smirked and tapped his chin. "Okay, well, how about the Love Master? Love Wizard? Love-"

"Okay, okay, I get it!" Lily settled back in her seat. "Fine. They're beyond ridiculous, really. They met on the boat ride, took a liking to each other immediately, were sorted into different houses but stayed friends because of Marlene and me and Ludo, and they still manage to find time to talk every day even with school, through shared classes or studying together. I don't know, they seem to talk about everything, and you know them, they're both so sweet and so smart but they're so passive when it comes to relationships. Alice thinks Frank doesn't like her because he's never done anything, and Frank likely thinks Alice doesn't like her because she's never done anything, either. They've got no idea how to flirt, the two of them."

"So someone needs to make a move." repeated James.

"Yeah." said Lily. "Mary and I tried to get Alice to get her tattoo, because we figured, that'll get them together, but she's too worried it won't be him or that she'll get him or he won't get her and all that ridiculous stuff. I dunno why he won't get his-"

"According to Marlene, something similar." said James.

Lily frowned slightly. "You've been talking to her? I thought you two were exes."

He shrugged. "She and Sirius have been fooling around some, so she's hung around with us. Don't know how long it'll last, though, Pete's intimidated by her and she and Remus don't get along too well."

"Oh." Lily said, looking down at her hands as annoyance twisted through her gut. Marlene had never been her favorite person, even if the Hufflepuff had been close with Mary and Alice since they were little. "Well, anyways, any ideas?"

James hummed under his breath, tapping his chin in thought. After a few seconds, he looked back up at her, the beginnings of a smile on his face. "It's obvious."

"Really." said Lily, arching an eyebrow.

"Yeah." James said. "Two friends who need to make a move already? Merlin, Evans, you're supposed to be the smart one here."

Lily crossed her arms, leaning forward. "Don't do this, Potter, I'm warning you."

"Fine." said James, grinning. "It's the oldest trick in the book."

"We're not locking them in a closet together-"

"No, no, no, although that one has a surprisingly high success rate, in my experience." said James. "Although my experience has mostly been with Sirius and people who wanted to be in there with him, so I don't know about-" He caught sight of Lily's expression and halted. "Fine, fine, fine. Jealousy."

"Jealousy?" asked Lily.

"Right." said James. "Most powerful motive for someone to finally make a move on someone else? Another person is moving in on their territory."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "We're human beings, Potter, we're not your prizes for your little pissing contests."

James waved his hand. "It's still a good idea. You know why I finally asked out Mary? I could tell that Cresswell was thinking about making a move on her. I mean, you've experienced it before, I'm sure, guys who are never interested in you otherwise suddenly are all over you once you've got better options, like, take Snivelly for example-"

Lily frowned at once, clenching her fingers tightly around her arms. "Please, Potter. You cannot comment on that whole situation."

"Fine, fine." said James, although his smile disappeared somewhat. "What, you aren't still friends-"

"No, of course not." said Lily. "But he wasn't completely at fault the whole time."

James laughed. "I don't know, I think he was completely at fault for what he thought about Muggleborns-"

"He made some terrible choices, yes, but that didn't mean he had to be bullied-"

"Only because of what his friends tried to do to Mary!" said James. "You're her best friend, Evans, you saw what happened, you really think he wasn't a part of that-"

"Let's move on." Lily said abruptly, looking down at the table.

"But-"

"Let's move on." Lily rested her elbows on the table, clenching her fists. "Clearly, we're never going to agree about this. He used to be a sweet kid, much nicer than you and Black ever were until this year, I might add, and you both hated him because he was a Slytherin-"

"No, I hated him because he was a melodramatic git who sides with the wrong-"

"He wasn't when you started bullying-"

"Well, maybe he shouldn't have made snide comments about Sirius being a Gryffindor!"

Lily laughed. "I don't know what you're talking about, Potter. You're delusional."

"No, I'm really not." said James, leaning forward. "He did it. All the Slytherins did. So yeah, I struck back at him. I have to protect my friends, Evans."

Lily held his gaze for a moment, and finally looked away. "Hmm." She couldn't help but wonder if there was a grain of truth in his story, even if it certainly didn't warrant five years of bullying- maybe Severus had been with a group harassing Sirius, had made some small contribution, and become an easy target for James and Sirius's overreaction because he was...Sev. Either way, she'd sworn not to think too much about him after she ended their friendship- he wasn't really worth thinking about, not anymore- so she just sighed. "We'll agree to disagree, Potter. Want to talk about what we actually came here to talk about?"

"Yeah, sure." said James, leaning back, although his shoulders were still tense and he was still frowning. "Basically, we find someone to either flirt with Frank or Alice until the other realizes that they're in love and they need to make a move or they're going to lose them."

"Fine. Maybe we should focus on Alice? I don't think she'd ever make the first move, Frank is much more likely. Plus, I don't want to flirt with him, I'd feel like I was betraying her."

"Well, okay, you and your principles." said James. "I mean, I could flirt with Alice-"

Lily raised her eyebrows. "But you're dating Mary, Alice's best friend, who will likely kill you if you cheat-"

"No, no, no." James raised his hands, a proper smile appearing on his face again. "You know me, I'm always flirting, Mary realizes that. I'd just have to maybe play it up a little bit in front of Frank!"

"What about Ludo?" Lily asked suddenly. "He's close with Frank, we could probably get him to be in on it, and he's good at flirting-"

James's smile hardened. "Bagman?"

"Yeah." said Lily. "Look, I know you two don't like each other, but-"

"No, he's too close to Frank." said James. "There's no way he'd agree to do it."

Lily leaned her weight on her elbows, smirking at him. "You're jealous, aren't you. This is about your Quidditch rivalry."

"No, no, no!" James raised his hands. "I just- don't think he'd go for it, that's all. And I'd much rather just get started than add in more people. Too many people, it could get too complicated, you know."

"I'm telling you, he's good friends with Frank, he'll be perfectly willing to keep a secret-"

James continued shaking his head, before stopping, the light of an idea reflected in his eyes. "What about Marlene, though..."

Lily frowned. "Why would we want Marlene?"

"Hey, I'm just saying." said James, pointing a finger at her. "She is also an excellent flirt, as I and Padfoot have learned many times over the past few years-"

"You're disgusting." said Lily, making a face at him. "And there's no way that would work. She's Frank's friend-"

"Oh, and that's different from-"

"It's different from Ludo, Potter, because Ludo isn't flirting with his friend, he's flirting with his friend's crush."

"That's even worse." James said, lacing his fingers together. "You know there's a code for this sort of thing. Ever wonder why Sirius stopped harassing you after I started asking you out?"

"You know, I never really noticed." said Lily. "I was too busy being harassed by someone else."

"Well, the point still stands." James said. "Marlene is clearly the better choice for help."

Lily sighed. "Look, why do we even need anyone to help? You're right, it would be better if it were just to the two of us."

"Great." said James, grinning.

Lily's eyes narrowed. "Now wait a minute-"

"Nope, you said I was right, we agreed on a plan, I think that's enough matchmaking for tonight." James said, standing up.

"Did you just manipulate me into not telling Ludo-"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" James said. He stretched out his arms, taking in a deep breath. "Oh, I am so tired-"

"James Potter, you come back here this instant!" Lily stood and strode after him, but he was already laughing up the boy's staircase by the time she was halfway across the room. She sighed, and then, much to her alarm, found she was smiling.

Well, smiling after a conversation with James Potter. That was certainly new.

Lily walked back to the remains of her homework, looking down at them. She didn't really feel like continuing her work- she usually had time before breakfast or during a break. Lily gathered up her papers and ascended the stairs to the girl's dormitory, feeling lighter than she had since she first found out about her tattoo.


	3. Chapter 3

The next day, Alice almost drove Lily mad. She wasn't sure if it was from finally talking to someone else about it, but Lily ached with how much she just wanted to say something. Alice was staring, that's what it was, she was spending all her time staring at Frank, and one look at Mary during dinner told Lily that this wasn't just in her head.

"Alice." said Mary. "Alice."

Lily rolled her eyes and reached out to snap her fingers in front of Alice's face, and the other girl jumped and looked over.

"Oh...sorry." said Alice. She picked up her fork and began eating.

Lily and Mary stared at her for a moment, raised their eyebrows at each other, and then looked at her again, Lily resting her face in one hand. Alice glanced up at them. "What?" she asked around a mouthful of food.

"You're staring again!" Mary exploded, banging her fists down on the table. "You've been staring all day, Al, and it's driving us crazy!"

Alice blinked at them. "What?"

Lily sighed, and Mary leaned forward. "Frank Longbottom." she whispered. "You've been staring at Frank Longbottom literally all day."

"You- you both think this?" Alice asked, looking over at Lily.

Lily nodded, smiling. "Come on, Alice, just got talk to him about it. You're driving Mary and I both crazy with all this deflection nonsense!"

"No, I really don't, I don't, I..." Alice poked at her dinner with her fork. "I'm sorry, it's just that he looks really tired today, that's all. I hope he got enough sleep."

Mary rolled her eyes theatrically.

"Fine." said Lily, returning to her dinner. "Fine. If that's what you think."

She didn't see Alice's expression, but a moment later, the girl quite conspicuously change the subject, and Lily accepted it. She had a much better idea of how to get more information on the situation.

"Hey, Ludo!" Lily said, sidling up to him during Herbology. It wasn't exactly unusual for them to share a table- they had been Herbology partners for years before their breakup, since Mary and Marlene usually partnered and Alice (of course) ended up with Frank- but it hadn't happened very much recently. They'd both thrown the whole partnering system out of whack for months, shuffling around between partners whenever someone got annoyed about the change. Now, however, might be a good time for them to try and reconcile.

Ludo looked over at her, face lighting up immediately. "Hey, Lily. What can I do for you?"

"I thought maybe it was time to reunite our old Herbology partnership." Lily leaned onto the table, tossing her hair behind one shoulder. "You know, my grades have been slipping since we stopped."

Ludo grinned, showing off his brilliant teeth. "Yeah, I think mine have probably slipped more. I'd love to be partners again, Lily, thanks." He offered his hand, and Lily shook it, feeling a familiar warmth all over her body.

She almost wished that her soulmate was Ludo. Sure, they broke up for a reason, but he was familiar and they got along pretty well, even if they did get pretty irritated with each other from time to time because their interests were so different. But what had always put Lily off a little bit was how self-absorbed he could be, to the point of arrogance sometimes. Then again, she'd had a long, humiliating crush on Sirius Black, so maybe she had a type when it came to arrogance.

"So, Ludo, training hard for the upcoming game?" Lily asked, pulling out two dirt-filled pots.

Ludo smirked as he pulled on a pair of thick gloves and grabbed one of the plants they were supposed to be trimming from the center bin. "Oh, definitely. Gryffindor's going to lose this year, you know, I've been learning a few tricks that will fly loops around even your James Potter."

For a moment, Lily flinched as she took one of Ludo's plants, and then she realized she was just being paranoid. Of course he hadn't meant anything by 'your Potter'. "Oh, I don't know, you could be right. Somehow taking over as Captain has stopped him from showing off with the Snitch like he used to. Hasn't improved his personality much, though."

"So that's still going on then." Ludo remarked, making a hole in the dirt with his fingers.

Lily snorted, carefully placing her bulb. "Ludo, my hatred of James Potter will never end."

"Right, good." said Ludo with a grin as he placed his own bulb. They both neatened up the soil around their plants, and then Lily grabbed the pots and joined the line in front of Professor Wood's desk, trying to work out a way to bring up Frank and Alice without being too obvious. She was chewing her lip, lost in thought, when Mary nudged her in the back with a pot.

Lily flinched and turned around to see Mary and James standing behind her in line, Mary grinning, James looking bored. "Mary!" she said. "That could be dangerous!"

"Herbology partners again?" whispered Mary, looking back towards Ludo.

Lily shrugged. "Yeah, figured it was about time. You don't think it's weird, do you?"

"No, not at all." Mary was grinning at her the same way she usually looked at Frank and Alice, and it was making Lily exceptionally uncomfortable. "So, you're-"

"What do you think you're playing at, Evans?" James snapped. Lily looked up at him- he wasn't bored, he was frowning, brow contorted in anger.

Lily drew herself up, letting all warmth drain from her voice. "Excuse me, Potter?"

Mary quickly stepped away from James to stand between them. "Now, wait, you two-"

James, however, wasn't looking at his girlfriend, instead glaring at Lily. "You know he's not-" he waggled his pots in a way that might have been him gesturing to Lily's wrist. "-and yet you're still-"

"James, please-"

"Still what, Potter?" Lily whispered, aware that they were starting to draw attention. "We were just talking because we're Herbology partners, not that it's any of your business, . Now, since you are clearly having some sort of mental breakdown, I'm going to turn in my assignment so I can get started on the next one." She turned to place her pots on the desk, but James stepped past Mary and blocked her path when she turned around.

"He's my mate, Evans-" he whispered, leaning towards her, and Lily glared up at him.

"You're making a scene-"

"You can't-"

"Potter! Evans!" said Professor Wood, finally noticing that two students were about to have a duel in his classroom. "Return to your work at once, please!"

Lily sent James the filthiest look she could manage and made her way back over to Ludo, flipping down on her stool with a harried sigh. Ludo sent her a curious look as he handed her two fresh pots but apparently knew better than to comment.

"I can't believe Mary is dating him." Lily muttered after a moment. "Bad enough when he liked me, now I have to pretend he's not an obnoxious git." She jammed her bulb into the plant with a little too much force and a tiny puff of purple smoke came out.

"Mm." Ludo waved a hand at the smoke until it dissipated.

"Merlin **.** " said Lily, prodding the soil around her plant to make sure it was firmly in place. "Why do people like him always end up in relationships and yet Frank and Alice have been in love for years and never do anything about it?"

Ludo looked up at her. "Hold on." He took the finished pots to the line in front of Professor Wood's desk, and then sat back down again. Lily handed him another prepared pot.

"Ok, you want to know what the deal with that is?" Ludo whispered, leaning towards her.

Lily nodded, taking two bulbs out of the center bin and handing one to him.

"Okay, here's the thing." Ludo widened the depression in the soil. "Frank doesn't think she likes him." Lily made a series of strangled noises that may have formed a sentence and Ludo chuckled. "Yeah, I know. But you have to admit he's got a point."

"What are you talking about?" Lily asked, barely remembering to keep her voice down. "She's over the moon for him!"

"Yeah, but she doesn't really show it." Ludo shrugged as he placed his bulb.

"Are you mad? Have you seen her around him? She's always smiling!"

"He thinks she acts that way around everyone."

Only the possibly harmful dirt on Lily's glove kept her from slapping herself hard in the face at that. "Scuse me." she said, and picked up the two finished pots to take them up to the desk.

When she returned, she accepted the pot and bulb from Ludo and settled herself on the stool, trying to decide whether to ask the question burning on her tongue. On the one hand, Ludo really would be a help. On the other hand...no, never mind. James didn't have a right to be upset with her after the way he'd acted today. "What if there were some way we could help them get together?"

Ludo raised an eyebrow as he brushed dirt off of his gloves. "What, like, locking them in a closet?"

"No." Lily said. She pressed down in the dirt, widening the hole, and then took a breath. "Okay, Potter had this idea-"

"Hold on." Ludo said. "Potter's in on this?"

"Yeah, I don't know how it happened either, and keep your voice down, okay?" Lily said. "He wants someone to flirt with them, to try and make them jealous. In fact, he wants to flirt with Alice to make Frank jealous, since I told him I'm not about to start batting my eyes at my friend's crush and he doesn't want to involve you for whatever reason." She placed the bulb, fluffing the leaves slightly. "Do you think that would work? Knowing Frank?"

"I don't know, it might make things worse." said Ludo. "What, do you guys have secret meetings where you talk about these things?"

Lily shrugged. "They tend to just happen, since we're both Gryffindors. See, I told him we could use your help on this-"

"I'd love to." Ludo said, grinning.

Lily smiled back at him. "Great, then I'll have to set it up next time so you can be a part of it."

Ludo nodded. "And do you mind if I talk to Marley about it, too? She'd love to be a part of something like this." He must've seen something in Lily's expression, because he quickly added, "Really, Lily, I don't know what it is with you two-"

"She tried to get Alice and Mary to stop talking to me so I wouldn't threaten their friendship with her!"

"Yeah, in first year." Ludo picked up the pots, raising his eyebrows at her. "Don't you think it's time you two stopped fighting over- whatever it is you're fighting over?"

"You never have any problem with me and Potter fighting." Lily said.

Ludo shrugged. "He's a prick. You're both intelligent, classy women. I know you two would like each other if you gave it a chance. Just try?"

"Fine." said Lily as Ludo picked up her pot. "But she's not part of our secret conspiracy yet, all right?"

Ludo grinned and nodded before heading off to the line.

At the next Prefect meeting, Remus greeted her by sliding down beside her with a wearied look on his face. "James wants to talk."

"Yeah, well, James can take a bulb and shove it somewhere nice and dark." Lily grumbled, leaning back against the couch and folding her arms. "Did he give you a reason for being such a prick in Herbology?"

Remus shrugged, studying a burn mark on the carpet. "I am not involving myself in this mess, not after last year."

"Those poems you wrote were very sweet poems, Remus." Lily said, patting his hand. "It was just his Cyrano gambit that I was upset about. And he seems to think that since I got my tattoo, I can't talk to Ludo. Apparently the only guys I can ever talk to anymore are my soulmate and him, when he wants to police my love life."

Remus looked over at her. "Do you know who it is? I mean, we're all a little curious."

"I...no." said Lily, and immediately felt a little guilty. She knew one of Remus's bigger secrets, after all. "Ok, I think so, but I'm not ready for people to know yet." Remus nodded. "And it's not like he has any room to talk about flirting, anyways, the way he carries on with Marlene-"

"He doesn't do that anymore." said Remus, picking at his shirt.

"What? No, I saw him just the other day-"

"He's not." said Remus, shrugging. "Because she and Sirius are shagging now."

Lily stared, open mouthed, at his blank face. "What?" she said at last. "This is news, when did this happen?"

Remus shrugged again. "Sirius told us about it a few days ago , but it's probably been going on for a while. Not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" Lily repeated. She didn't understand how his tone could be so flat when talking about something this shocking.

"Yeah." Remus glanced at her and then over at the wall. "You know Sirius, always...dating all the women."

Lily snorted. "Yeah, I guess I do. Just didn't expect Marlene to go for him, is all. I'm a little surprised, Remus."

"I'm not." he said, and there was something so undeniably irritated about his tone that Lily changed the topic and didn't push the subject again.

She did, however, tell Alice and Mary about it later that night . "Did you guys know? Did she tellyou?"

Alice shook her head, but Mary just smirked. "Oh yeah, I've know for a while."

"Really? How?" asked Alice, flopping back against the bed and handing Lily a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans.

"It's obvious when two people like each other." said Mary. "I don't know, they were leaning towards each other all the time, and you know neither of them are subtle when they want something. I've had a few trips to Hogsmeade that we're practically double dates with them. Even when Sirius and I dated, I always sort of thought."

"I thought she had a thing for Potter." said Lily, popping a jellybean in her mouth. She breathed a relieved sigh through her nose- it was cinnamon as she's hoped- and swallowed it before continuing. "You see the way the two of them act around each other."

Mary shrugged. "Nah, that's different."

"What do you mean?"

Mary reached out a hand for a jellybean and Lily dropped several into her palm. "I don't know. They've both always liked other people more, never got the sense that it was anything other than casual."

Lily snorted in disbelief.

"What are they like?" Alice asked, staring up at the ceiling. "I mean, we know what the Marauders are like when they're messing with us, it's hard to imagine them actually as friends or dates."

Lily looked over to Mary- Mary had dated two Marauders, after all- to find the other girl grimacing. "Ugh, mangrove leaf."

"Ew, spit it in the sink." said Lily.

Mary stood up and did so, before returning to their beds. "Hmm. Well, you guys both know Remus pretty well, although I have to say, back in fourth year, he wasn't nearly as nice to me as he is now. Sirius...I dunno, he's exactly like he always is, making jokes out of everything, only when he's not making fun of you, it's much funnier. Plus he can be a real sweetheart sometimes, holding doors, and you remember he tried to hex all the Slytherins after that mess." Mary took a breath. "He's really protective of Remus, too. It's kind of sweet. And James..." She ignored Lily's noise of disgust. "He's not as into the chivalry thing but he actually remember you exist ninety percent of the time, unlike Sirius. Plus he's really interesting to talk to, and he treats the others like his brothers, for all his antics. Peter's really nice too, you know. He's quiet so you don't notice it as much, but he's been politer to me than Remus has at times."

Lily raised her eyebrows at that. "Sounds nothing like any of them."

Mary tossed a jellybean at her. "Maybe. But enough about them, they're not the important people in my life."

"Aww, Mary, do we mean that much to you?" Alice asked teasingly as Lily tossed a jellybean back.

Mary caught Lily's jellybean in her mouth and chewed it with obvious relish. "Nah." she said, adding all of the leftover beans from her hand. "I'm talking about those Dark Wizardswe have to research for Defense Against the Dark Arts, remember?"

Alice, however, was staring at her, nose scrunched up and shoulders tense. "That's so gross."

"Makes them taste better." Mary said through a mouthful of jellybeans.

"I'm with you, Alice." Lily said. "One at a time is always the way to go." She tossed a jellybean at Alice, and Alice rolled her eyes, giggling.

Lily's good humor only lasted until the next meeting of the secret conspiracy, however. True to her word, she arranged it this time, in the library on an afternoon when she know Ludo would be free. She had been hoping James would arrive first so she could try and talk him into accepting a third member, but nothing had prepared Lily for the reality of sitting awkwardly across from a stone faced James for ten minutes, hoping for something to break the silence.

Lily finally sighed and decided to take his bait. "Something on your mind, Potter? The way you're staring is really going to give you wrinkles someday."

James folded his arms and leaned back in his seat. "Peter's my friend. You can't just cheat on him like that."

Lily couldn't help but laugh at that. "Cheat on him? Are you mad?"

"Am I?" James asked. "You know he's your soulmate, and yet you're out shagging Bagman-"

"I was talking to him, Potter, talking!" Lily hissed. "Like we are, right now, only without one of us having lost their mind-"

"You and him are old news, Evans, why is this still happening?" asked James in a low whisper. "How many times do you have to end things with him-"

"That is none of your business, and if you keep harassing me about it, I will leave." said Lily. "This is supposed to be about Frank and Alice, not my love life. I was talking to him about that, actually, if you cared enough to know-"

"I told you, we don't need his help-"

"-and I invited him here." Lily folded her arms. "Because he actually has some great insights. So if you've got a problem, Potter..."

For a moment, there was a frozen silence as they stared each other down. "Fine." James said. "But you wouldn't even be doing this if it weren't for me-"

"Uh, am I interrupting something?"

Lily looked up and smiled. "No, Ludo, of course not! Come on, sit down!" She patted the seat next to her, shooting James a venomous look, which he returned.

"So, Bagman, Evans said you had some...insights?"

"Yeah, a few." said Ludo. "I think I can help advise you two on what will get them together. Plus, I, er, well, I know you said not to, Lily, but I decided to bring someone in with even more insight than I have."

"Oh, really, why not include all of Hogwarts while you're at it?" began James, and then his eyes widened as he spotted someone over Lily's shoulders. He grinned. "Never mind, I take it back. That's brilliant."

"What are you-" Lily glanced from James's grin to Ludo's nervous expression, and twisted around. Her mouth fell open.

Marlene McKinnon stood there, smiling, almost smirking at that three of them. "Hey, James, Lily, heard you could use my help?"

After a moment, Lily shook her head. "No, no, we don't need anyone else-"

Marlene ignored her, moving to sit down beside James. James grinned at Lily. "What's wrong? She's a friend of Frank's, and a friend of Alice's, and since apparently we're bringing other people into this-"

Lily sent him a dirty look. "No, it's fine, we just don't want to add too many people to this-"

"No one else then." said Marlene, placing her bag on the table and rifling through it. "Just us four. It's Frank and Alice, Lily, I've known them both for forever, I want to help them."

"Right." Lily clenched her teeth.

"And she has so many ideas, too." said Ludo. "We were talking about them last night-"

"Right, okay, fine." Lily rubbed her temples, closing her eyes. "But no more telling other people about this, not even Sirius, Marlene-"

"I think we already established that." said Marlene, watching Lily coldly.

Ludo looked between them. "Black? What about him?"

"Oh, right, you two finally made it official, didn't you?" James said, grinning at Marlene. "Congratulations!"

Marlene smirked back. "Thanks."

"Wait, when did this happen?" asked Ludo. "You didn't mention this to Frank or I!"

Marlene sighed. "I told Frank, but I knew you don't like Sirius, so I didn't want to-"

"Didn't like him? More like he doesn't like me." Ludo said. "For no bloody reason, too; I've never done the first thing to him-"

Marlene snorted. "He says the exact same thing, you know. You and James and Sirius always have to have your little machismo pissing contests, it's no wonder you don't get along."

"Hey, Sirius and I are like brothers!" James said, but he was grinning at Marlene, much to Lily's irritation.

"Can we get back to the subject?" she said.

"Fine." Marlene settled herself primly back in her seat.

"So, Frank and Alice." Ludo said, casting an unhappy glance at Marlene. "It's about time we do something about them."

Lily nodded. "My thoughts exactly. Now, Potter and I were trying to come up with ideas earlier-"

"Hold on." said Marlene, raising a finger, and Lily sighed and looked over at her. "Can we say, for the purposes of these meetings, that everyone calls each other by their first names? It's just pointlessly confusing otherwise."

Lily met James's eyes, and he grinned at her. "What about it, Lily?" he said.

"Fine, James." Lily made a face at him. "But that applies to you and Ludo, too."

Ludo shrugged. "I'm up for that."

"Anyways." Lily said. "We had the idea of jealousy. Someone flirts with Frank or Alice until the other finally realizes they have to make a move."

"Take a shit or get off the pot, so to speak." said James, and Marlene giggled.

Lily frowned at both of them. "Yes, thank you, _James_."

"You're welcome, _Lily_." James smirked. "And what we were thinking, is that I would do it, since I'm an excellent flirt and I naturally flirt with everyone-"

"But you're dating her best friend." said Ludo, and Lily nodded in agreement. "If we're going to keep this between the four of us, wouldn't it make more sense for me to?"

"Nah, but you see, the very fact that I'm dating someone makes it better, because she'll know it doesn't mean anything-"

"He will, too." argued Ludo. "That could backfire and not have any effect at all-"

"But if he thinks it means something, then he might give up." said Marlene. "You know Frank, Ludo. And why does it have to be one of you two in the first place? If I started flirting with Frank-"

"You're with Black." Ludo said, frowning.

"Yeah, and Alice would probably give up." said Lily. "Since you two are friends. I agree with Ludo, plus, in my experience, he is better at the whole thing-"

James sighed. "Okay, Evans, I know I went overboard last year-"

Lily smirked at him. "Lily."

"What?"

"First names, remember?"

"Okay, can we get back on topic?" asked Marlene. "Lily, I think you're right. Alice is more likely to just give up than Frank is, especially because she and I are friends. You know how she is."

Lily nodded, a bit dumbfounded that Marlene was actually agreeing with her on something.

"But I also think James is right." she continued. "Sorry, Ludo. It's a delicate situation no matter what, but if James flirts with her, she and Mary will know it doesn't mean anything, because he's James, so neither of them will take it too seriously."

"What about Frank?" asked Ludo.

"What about him?" Marlene said, turning to Ludo. "You think he's gonna do anything other than give up if you start in on Alice? Honestly, it could work in our favor if he realizes that it doesn't mean anything. He'll figure out that he's upset, and why he's upset, and then he'll go and do something about it, instead of assuming the worst and letting her go. Ludo, come on, you know it makes sense."

"Agreed." said James with a grin. "I vote Marlene's plan."

Ludo sighed. "All right. It does make sense."

"Good." said Marlene, and then all three were looking at Lily.

Lily huffed. "I don't like it, but-"

"But it's three to one." said James. "We've got a majority, don't we?"

Lily briefly contemplated smacking him. "All right, fine, have your majority. But if either Mary or Alice end up hurt as a result of this, I will personally hex you straight into the Hospital Wing, Po- _James_."

James smirked. "Deal. As long as you aren't planning on hurting any of my friends."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Well, then. We're done here."

Marlene immediately stood, swinging her bag around her shoulder. "Ludo, walk me back to Hufflepuff tower?"

"Sure, absolutely." Ludo said, and then he picked up his books and followed after her.

James waggled his eyebrows. "What about it, Lily?"

"Piss off, Potter." Lily said, gathering her things.


	4. Chapter 4

They put their plan into action almost immediately, at breakfast the next day. Lily waved at Ludo when she came in, and then lightly tugged Mary alongside her so that Alice would sit across from them facing Frank.

Mary giggled as she walked behind Lily. "Possessive, much?"

"Hey, you two always sit next to each other, maybe I got tired of being alone at the table." said Lily.

Alice pushed her hair behind her ears as she sat down. "Maybe this way I'll get through one breakfast without either of you knocking something over."

Lily snorted. "We don't do it that often, and that's mostly Mary."

"It is not!" Mary said, slamming her hands on the table as she sat.

Lily reached across her to pick up a roll for her plate. "It's even worse when James is here." When her remark was met with silence, she looked up. "What?"

Alice glanced at Mary, a small smile appearing on her face. "Nothing."

"No, nothing at all." said Mary, busying herself with cutting up a sausage. Although she had a better poker face than Alice, her tone was all amusement.

Lily reddened, realizing what she'd just said, but before she could backtrack, James himself plopped down across from her. "Good morning, ladies. You're all looking wonderful for so early." Remus and Sirius sat down next to James, and Peter- much to Lily's surprise- settled himself next to her. She glanced over at him and sent a glare towards James, but James was too busy listening to Mary to notice.

"Why are you here?" Mary asked, leaning back coquettishly. "You know I never like to see you until lunchtime."

"Oh, just this once, baby, I'm breaking the rules for you." said James, leaning across the table. Mary rolled her eyes and reached out to meet him halfway in a kiss that Lily had no desire to see this early in the morning. She looked around for any sort of distraction and met Peter's eyes.

"Good morning, Lily." he said.

"Hi." she replied, smiling, before returning to her food. It wasn't that she didn't like Peter, he was a very sweet boy. It was just- she had a feeling James had told him to talk to her, and she had no desire to let James win that particular battle.

"Did you see James's goal at Quidditch practice last week?" Peter asked.

"Mmm, yeah." Lily grimaced slightly. Mary and James hadn't let up with their display, and if they kept this up all breakfast, there was no way Frank would believe any sort of flirting from James to Alice.

Luckily for her, she wasn't the only one disgusted by their snogging. Sirius, in between bites of a scone, grabbed a piece of sausage off of Remus's plate and tossed it at them. "Oi, some of us are trying to have breakfast here!"

"Sirius, that was my sausage." said Remus.

Sirius just grinned at him. "You don't want me touching your sausage?"

As Remus let out a long-suffering sigh, James finally sat back down in his own seat, flashing a grin of his own at Sirius. "I would say you're jealous of my having a girlfriend, but we both know that's not true anymore."

"Maybe." said Sirius, smirking.

"So why are you four joining us this morning?" Mary pushed around the food on her plate, still a bit smiley from the good morning kiss she'd had earlier.

James shrugged. "Dunno, figured we'd been hanging out enough lately as a group that it was about time." His eyes flicked over to Lily. "That is, if no one has any objections to it."

"She's fine with it." said Alice. "She even called you James earlier."

James burst out into loud laughter, looking over at Alice. "Did she?"

"It was an accident." said Lily, face reddening again.

"Still, Alice, thank you for telling me about this." James patted Alice's back, pulling her slightly closer.

"You could call him Prongs if you want." said Peter. Lily looked over at him- he was still watching her. "That's what I call him, that's not James."

"Nah, that's a Marauder thing, she can't use that!" said Sirius.

"Besides, I think calling him Prongs would be even stupider." said Mary, lifting her fork to her mouth. She met James's eyes. "No offense."

"Our names aren't stupid!" said Peter, leaning forward to look at Mary.

Mary snorted. "They kind of are."

"No, they're not!"

"Yeah, they kind of are." said Lily.

"Don't laugh at that, Moony." Sirius stared at Remus, betrayed. "You're supposed to be loyal to us!"

"They are unusual." Remus said around a bite of sausage, but he was smiling.

"What do you think, Alice?" asked James, looking over at the her. "Do you agree with your fellow sisters in bad taste?"

Alice giggled, clearly a little flustered from his attention. "I- I don't know. It's cool you guys have nicknames, I guess."

James squeezed her shoulder. "Good. You are a fine woman, Alice."

"Someone's friendly this morning." said Mary, eyeing the two of them.

James shrugged, grinning at her, although his hand was still resting on Alice's shoulder. "Alice and I don't spend nearly enough time together. Plus, she likes our nicknames, she's cooler than you."

Mary shrugged back. "She won't kiss you like I do, though." she said.

"Oh God, no." Lily placed her hands on her ears and whirled around to face away from the table, partially to get away from their nauseating coupleness, partially to see if she could glimpse Frank's expression. As far as she could tell, he was watching them.

"What's wrong, Evans?" James called, and, reluctantly, she turned back around to face his cocky grin. "Don't worry, I'm sure there's someone out there for you, too."

Lily sighed. "Mary, please switch seats with me."

"Why?"

"So I don't have to be in the middle of you and James." Lily set down her utensils, wiped off her mouth, and stood, crossing her arms.

Mary giggled. "All right, Lily. If that's what you want." She slid over next to Peter, switching the plates.

"Yeah, Lily." James propped his face up on one hand and smirked at her, and Lily realized what she'd just said.

"Oh, bugger off." She slouched back down in her seat while the rest of the group laughed.

* * *

Lily was beginning to seriously wonder what James had told Peter. After Peter's attempts at conversation over breakfast, he had tried to talk to her several times the next week, even taking Mary's usual spot as her seatmate in Transfiguration. He'd never talked to her that much before. Now, after she finally thought she'd escaped him, here he was again, coming over to her and Mary's table during one of their study periods.

"Hi, Mary, Lily." he said, smiling at the two of them.

Lily gave him a terse smile in return. "Hi, Peter. What can we do for you?" She looked behind him to where the rest of the Marauders were sitting, trying to shoot James a glare, but he wasn't paying attention.

"Oh, I, uh, actually had a question about the Transfiguration assignment." He sat down at their table, in between the two of them. "I, uh, I didn't really hear what she wants us to write the essay on during class, and I didn't want to ask McGonagall..."

Lily leaned forward, pushing her hair out of her face. "I think it was just twelve inches on chapter six." She glanced over again, and this time, James was watching them. He looked away before Lily could catch his eye, though.

"Uh...which one was that?"

Lily sighed. "Well, you remember the spell we learned in class today?"

Peter nodded, watching her intently. "Yeah?"

"We've got to explain the theory of that." Lily dug her textbook out of her bag and opened it, trying to find the right page. "Let me see, it should be in here..."

"Look, I've got this." Mary said. She took Lily's book, flipped a few pages, and pushed it towards Peter. "All right, you managed to do the exercise today, right? With the birds?"

Peter nodded.

"You remember how you did it?"

Peter nodded again.

"Okay, just concentrate on what you did." Mary pointed at a spot on the page. "The theory is all about that. It's literally just that spell."

"Oh." Peter chewed on one lip. "But how am I supposed to write that so she'll understand?"

Mary laughed. "What do you mean?"

"Like, what if she doesn't feel the same thing when she's doing the spell so she doesn't understand how I'm describing it?"

"She's the Transfiguration professor, Peter, she's probably heard every description possible of this spell, she'll know what you mean."

"Lily?"

Lily turned away from Peter and Mary's conversation to see Alice standing there. "Yeah?"

"You're still coming to study with Frank and I, right?"

"Oh, yeah." Lily stood, gathering up her books. "You're good, right, Peter?"

Peter turned back to face her, chewing on his lip again. "Oh, uh, yeah, I think Mary can help me."

"Yeah, sure." Mary said. She waved to Lily and Alice. "See you around."

Lily waved back and turned away. "It won't just be you and Frank there, will it? I love you two, but when you're together, sometimes I feel a bit like a third wheel."

Alice looked down at the ground. "Oh, no, Ludo will be there, too. That's fine, right? You guys were partners in Herbology again."

"Yeah, yeah." Lily said, smiling. "That's totally fine."

* * *

They found Frank and Ludo at an alcove in one of the lower hallways, with a good view of the February chill outside. Lily waved to them and immediately climbed up to sit beside Ludo, leaving an empty spot next to Frank for Alice.

"Hey, Lily." said Ludo, slinging an arm around her. "Come and join our suffering."

"Gladly." said Lily. "I really, really hate Binns' essays. Frank, you have good notes, right?"

"Yeah, some." Frank said. "I dunno, I can't ever get down everything he says."

"Of course he can." Ludo said. "I sit next to him, he writes like his quill's enchanted. You actually like this stuff, don't you?"

Frank shrugged. "The Goblin wars are interesting. I just think it's neat that there are all these other civilizations living with us that we know next to nothing about. We've got completely different histories than them, and the cultural differences are-"

"Yeah, but you have to admit Binns isn't the most compelling teacher." said Ludo. "And there are too many damn goblins."

"Well, maybe..."

"I don't know, Frank's kind of right, isn't he?" asked Alice. "We really don't know much about them." She glanced over at Frank, smiling, and he smiled back. As soon as they met eyes, though, they looked away. Lily wanted to groan in frustration.

"Is there some sort of job for studying that, like an magical sociologist?" she asked instead. "That sounds like a neat career, traveling around and researching that stuff."

Frank picked at the end of one sleeve. "Yeah, there is. I'd rather be an Auror, though."

"Frank's mother doesn't want him to." Alice informed Lily. "She wants him to be a professor."

"I still think you should tell that woman to bugger off. You'd make a great Auror, you're fantastic at Charms." said Ludo.

Frank shrugged again. "She and my dad both had a rough time as Aurors. I understand her not wanting me to end up the same way."

"But we need as many Aurors as we can get right now!" Alice said.

"Yeah, I just have to convince her." Frank said, turning to look at her. "She doesn't trust the Ministry much anymore, either."

Alice folded her arms, almost pouting. "Well, she shouldn't force you into something you don't like."

Lily raised her eyebrows at Ludo. He coughed. "Er, Alice, what do you want to do after graduation?"

"Oh, she wants to do something helpful, too." Lily said, grinning at Alice.

"Yeah." Alice rested her arms on her knees. "I don't know what exactly that could be yet, though."

"Well, you're pretty good at duelling, too, aren't you?" Ludo asked. Lily elbowed him. It was true, of course- it was mostly thanks to Alice that the Slytherins left them alone nowadays, because for all her gentle nature she could be downright scary when she took a stand- but Ludo could be more subtle.

"You know, the Aurors could probably use you, too." said Frank. "You're really smart and you're great at spells. "

Alice smiled shyly. "Thank you, Frank."

"Yeah, that would be cool." Lily said, leaning back against the alcove. "You guys could both be Aurors, like a crime-fighting duo or something." She caught Ludo's eye- he looked like he was suppressing a laugh. "Maybe even train together some while you're still at Hogwarts. You know, so you can stay on top of your game."

Alice was doing her best to glare at Lily. Lily winked back.

"You know, that might be a good idea." said Frank, still looking down at his parchment. "It would be better to practice with someone else, and I would prefer to practice a lot, since it is a dangerous job."

"Really?" Alice said, a smile working its way back on her face.

"Yeah." Frank met her eyes. "I, uh, if you want to, that is. I don't want to-"

"Yeah, yeah, that sounds great!" said Alice, grinning. "We should definitely do that!"

Frank was too busy staring at her smile to give a coherent response. Lily glanced over at Ludo again and couldn't help but snort when he raised his eyebrows.

Ludo cleared his throat. "Er, all right. Let's get to the actual homework, shall we?"

"Yeah." Alice said, turning back to face them. "Um, I have some notes, too, but they're probably not as good as Frank's."

"They're probably neater." Frank said.

Alice's cheeks darkened as she dug in her bag to find them. "Uh...yeah. Here they are." She spread her notes out next to Frank's and Lily and Ludo leaned over to look at them.

"All right, so we're probably using the first section on the first few questions, Binns always puts them in order..." Lily began, reaching into her bag for her own homework.

"Funny seeing you here, Lily!"

Lily closed her eyes in frustration as James Potter approached the alcove. "Hello, Potter."

James leaned up on it, smirking. "That's not what you were calling me on Monday. Hello, Alice, Frank. Bagman."

"What do you want, Potter?" asked Ludo. "We're working right now."

"Nothing at all, I just saw some friends and thought I'd come visit." James pushed himself up onto the alcove, crowding next to Alice. He leaned over her, peering at the notes. "What are you guys working on?"

Despite herself, Alice was blushing. Lily supposed the proximity of an attractive boy would do that to anyone. "Um...we're, uh, working on History of Magic."

"I didn't think you were in that class." said Frank, and his tone was curious enough, but the corners of his mouth were turned down.

"Yeah, that was too tough for me." James leaned away from Alice, but they were crammed so tightly into the alcove that that didn't mean much. "But you lot are all smarter than I am. Especially Alice. She's got great notes."

Lily glanced over at Frank and Alice. Frank was looking out the window, mouth set, and Alice was clearly uncomfortable. Maybe this wasn't such a good plan, after all. "What are you actually doing here, Potter?" she asked, hoping to get his attention off of Alice.

James shrugged. "What I said. Moony and Pads were having a little tiff, so I figured I'd better stay out of it. Went to find someone else to hang out with, and ran into you four."

"Mary and Peter were right across the room."

"Yeah, but they were talking about Transfiguration." James said. "I've already got my Transfiguration homework done."

"We're talking about History of Magic." Lily said, raising an eyebrow.

James's grin faltered a bit. "What, you don't want me around?"

"No, no, it's fine, you can stay." said Alice, sending a chiding look at Lily. "We've got other classes to work on. Have you done the Charms homework yet?"

"No, I haven't, what is it?" James leaned into Alice's space again to peer over her shoulder as she dug through her bag, and Alice scooted slightly away, until she was practically in Frank's lap. Lily sent a helpless glance at Ludo.

Ludo cleared his throat. "I think Lily and I are gonna go work on the History of Magic essay, actually. Frank, you wanna...?"

Frank shook his head. "I like Charms." he said quietly.

"Aww, Lily, don't go!" said Alice, extending a hand to her as Lily climbed out of the alcove..

"Sorry." Lily forced a smile. "I just...really want to get a head start on this essay."

"Do you want to borrow my notes?" Frank asked.

Lily looked into his eyes, his very sincere eyes, and sent him a thousand mental apologies. "No, that's fine, we'll just go get one of the Goblin History books from the library."

"Just the two of you?" James asked. Oh, right, he thought she and Ludo were secretly shagging.

"Yes, Potter, I'm of age now, I don't need an escort to be on my own with a boy anymore." She smiled sweetly at him. "Have fun."

As soon as they were out of earshot of the trio, Ludo grabbed her arm. "What's wrong?"

Lily rubbed her forehead. "I don't know, it's just...don't you feel bad? Frank looked so crushed, and poor Alice was pretty uncomfortable..."

Ludo shrugged. "It'll make them happy in the end, won't it?"

"Yeah, but...he's liked her for years, Ludo. Don't you think he might be a little heartbroken if he thinks she's going to give up on him?"

"I thought that was the point." Ludo said, and Lily gave him a look. "No, Frank is my best mate, but I don't think he will do anything about Alice otherwise. And this sort of thing is bound to happen eventually, right? One of them will give up and move on, and the other will be heartbroken. At least this way they've still got a chance."

"I guess you're right." Lily said. "I just hadn't really thought that we were hurting them, you know?"

Ludo shrugged. "It's for a good cause. Now, can we actually work on that essay? I have no idea what Binns wants us to do."

* * *

When Lily and Remus returned from patrol that night, they found the Common Room empty, save for James Potter working on something in one corner. He waved to Remus, who took no time hurrying upstairs to the boy's dorm- he had been in a bad mood all patrol and Lily suspected he just wanted to sleep. Before Lily could follow his example, however, James called, "Lily. Wait."

Lily crossed her arms, approaching his table. "What, more Quidditch strategies?"

"Actually, yes." said James. "But I know how bad of a Quidditch player you are."

"That was one time!"

"Anyways, that wasn't what I wanted to ask you about." James put down his quill. "You...seemed unhappy this afternoon, before you and Bagman left."

"We didn't go shag, if that's what you're asking." Lily said, sitting down.

James snorted, glancing back down at his paper. "Well, no, but that's good to know. No, I just thought we were doing the plan. Did you not like that?"

Lily shifted in her seat, stretching her arms out on the table. "No, I- I just didn't expect Frank to look so hurt, that's all. And Alice seemed a little uncomfortable, too."

"Oh." A crease appeared between James's eyebrows. "Did he look that upset?"

"Yeah." Lily bit her lip. "I mean, it's for a good cause, I guess, but...I'm just worried that we'll ruin things between them. What if Frank gives up completely and they both end up heartbroken? Ludo says that's what would probably happen anyways, but-"

"Well, that's nice of him." James said. "Look, if they're really just getting hurt, we can try something different, or stop. The Love Healer heals, not hurts."

Lily couldn't help but crack a smile at that. "Let's just give it another week. Valentine's Day is coming up on Saturday, maybe Frank will do something then."

"Right." James said, grinning. "I'll try to tone it back. Got more important things to focus on anyways, like how I'm going to cream Ludo Bagman and his Hufflepuffs this Saturday."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I swear, you two are obsessed with each other. Shouldn't you be making plans with your girlfriend, not your Quidditch rival?"

James shrugged. "She's on the team, she understands. I mean, if we lose the game, neither of us are going to have a good Valentine's Day, are we?"

"Whatever." Lily said. "You Quidditch players."

James grinned up at her. "Don't even try to deny it, you're going to be screaming in the stands with everyone else come Saturday."

"For Mary." Lily said, standing. "Not for you. I'll only be screaming Mary's name."

James let out a dramatic sigh. "Ah, Evans, one of these days I'll get you to scream my name instead."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "You're so immature."

"Just can't pass up a good opportunity!"

Before Lily could respond, they both heard footsteps and turned to see Mary coming down the girl's stairway. "Hey." she said, looking between them. "You two are up late."

"Yeah." Lily smirked at James. "James was just telling me all about the wonderful surprise he has planned for you this Saturday."

"Oh, great, thanks, Lily." James said, smiling back. "Now you've ruined it."

"I'm sure it'll still be a surprise." Mary crossed the room to ruffle his hair. "You should get some sleep, James. Quidditch strategies can wait."

James rubbed the back of his neck, looking up at her. "I just really want to make sure we win this year, you understand."

"Of course." Mary placed a hand on his shoulder and kissed him.

Lily moved to go, feeling something in her gut churn at her interrupting such a private moment, but Mary waved her back, pulling away from James. "Wait, Lily. I was actually coming down here to find you. Alice wanted to talk about Hogsmeade this Saturday and I wasn't sure if you were back yet."

"Yeah, all right." Lily said, and then had to wait through another round of tongue-on-tongue before Mary would come up with her. Again, her gut twisted. Unbidden, the problem of her tattoo floated back up in her mind. She had been trying not to think about it, instead focusing on Frank and Alice and her studies, but Mary and James seemed so happy. What would Mary do if she knew?

"Ready to go?" Mary said.

Lily pushed thoughts of her tattoo out of her mind and gave her best smile. "Yeah. Or, what, do you need another good night kiss?"

Mary elbowed her as they began climbing the stairs. "What were you guys talking about?" she asked in a low voice. "I don't think I've ever seen the two of you look so civil."

"He just wanted advice on what to do for you for Valentine's." Lily said. "I figured my friendship with you was more important than my dislike of him, so I was nice. He must've felt the same way. I think it's sweet, if Potter can ever be sweet."

"I guess." Mary said.

Lily frowned. "Something wrong?"

Mary shook her head. "No, no, of course not. It's just...we've been dating for over a month now and it still seems like he's not really invested sometimes. Don't say anything, I know how biased you are on the subject."

A pang of guilt rocketed through Lily's abdomen. "I'm sure he cares. He's just obsessed with Quidditch, you know that."

Mary snorted. "No one's that obsessed. But that's my problem, not yours. You have to talk to Alice for me, she's being oblivious again."

"What do you mean?"

Mary smiled, grabbing Lily's arm to pull her more quickly up the stairs. "You just have to come and hear it. You'll never guess what Frank did now."


	5. Chapter 5

"You two want to go on a date." James said, tone flat. Marlene looked equally unimpressed, watching Lily and Ludo behind steepled fingers.

Lily glanced over at Ludo. "No, that's not what I said at all." She crossed her arms, leaning over the library table. "Frank and Alice are going on a date, and they invited us to come along. I think we should."

Marlene raised an eyebrow. "What? When did this happen? Frank never told me."

"Last weekend, apparently." said Ludo, looking at Lily for confirmation. "And for the record, he didn't tell me, either. Apparently he asked Alice if she wanted to go to Hogsmeade with him on this Valentine's Day, and...I'm still not clear on this part..."

"Alice immediately assumed it was a group outing and invited me to go with them that night." Lily said, shaking her head. "So Frank invited Ludo."

"We think it would be a good idea to go with them." Ludo said. "That's why we wanted to have this meeting, actually, to talk about that. We were thinking that we would go along at first, and then split off at some point and leave them to it. That way they still end up on a date, and you two can enjoy your own Valentine's Days with your dates."

Marlene broke into laughter, covering her face with her hands. "I can't believe Alice thought Frank asking her to Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day was platonic." she said. "Actually, I can. That's the most Alice thing I've ever heard."

"She's just a little oblivious." Lily said. "Mary and I tried telling her, but..."

Marlene looked up at Lily. "Come on, you have to admit it's a little funny."

Lily smiled. "All right, it is."

"I don't understand why you two have to even go then." James said. "Just tell Alice to go with him alone. Besides, shouldn't you have your own Valentine's plans?"

"Nah, I've got nothing at the moment." Ludo said, grinning.

"Neither do I, James." Lily said, gritting her teeth. "I'm not sure what exactly you were hoping to imply by that. Besides, I think it's a comfort thing more than anything else. Alice is worried something will go wrong."

"Yeah, Lily and I both tried to back out of it, but they wouldn't let us." said Ludo.

"Well, I've got no problem with it." Marlene said a bit forcefully, turning to James. "My boyfriend and I were planning to spend the day together, so I'm just glad it's out of my hair." She patted James's shoulder. "And don't you and Mary MacDonald have something planned?"

"And I've got the Quidditch game that night, yeah." James looked up at Lily. "Fine. Do it. I just don't see how giving them more time alone is going to change anything."

Ludo raised a finger. "More time alone on Valentine's Day."

"Yeah, and besides, we didn't need your permission, James." Lily said sourly. "It's three to one. We've got a majority."

James opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Marlene grabbed his arm. "Enough. I think it's a good plan. Let's just stop there, all right?" She leveled a gaze at Ludo and Lily. "And don't let your time alone on Valentine's Day make you lose sight of the goal, all right?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "We've been broken up for a year."

"Yeah, Marley, it's not like that." said Ludo, grabbing Marlene's hand. "It's just for Frank, okay?"

Lily snorted. "You could be a little more enthusiastic."

Ludo looked between her and Marlene, and eventually settled for grinning at her. "All right. Lily Evans, will you go to Hogsmeade with me?"

Lily grinned back. "I would love to, Ludo Bagman."

Marlene pushed her chair back, standing. "I'm ending it there before this gets any more disgusting. See you all next week or whenever." She grabbed her bags, ruffled James's hair, and swept out of the library.

"I'm going, too." said Ludo, gathering up his things and standing. "Got Quidditch practice tonight, gotta be ready for Saturday." He glanced over at James, but James was frowning and didn't respond. "Uh...bye."

Lily quickly moved to put her books in her bag.

"Why are you still hanging around with him?"

Lily sighed. "None of your business, Potter."

"No, I mean it." James grabbed her arm. "Why are you still messing around with him instead of telling Peter?"

Lily shook him off. "Get your hand off of me. It's my own business, and Peter's. And actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about that." Lily leaned towards him, whispering as venomously as she could. "Did you tell Peter about my tattoo? Is that why he's been talking to me so much lately?"

James balled his fists on the table. "No, not in so many words, but someone should-"

"Well, that someone is going to me, when I'm ready." Lily hissed. "Not you. You're making way too big a deal out of this. Ludo and I are just friends, we're doing this as friends for Frank and Alice, and it's Peter's love life, not yours."

"Look who's talking, Miss Matchmaker." hissed James.

Lily inhaled sharply. "It was your idea! And you were fine with being the Love Healer until it involved Ludo and I spending time together!"

"I'm just trying to look out for Peter!" James said, glaring up at her. "Like I said-"

"And looking out for Peter means telling him that I fancy him, or whatever you said that's got him following me around like a puppy all week?" Lily threw up her hands when James didn't respond. "This isn't helping, all right? You really need to be more worried about your own girlfriend then what I'm doing with my love life. You know, Mary McDonald? Beater on your Quidditch team? Deserves a boyfriend who won't take her for granted on Valentine's Day?"

James looked up at her, clenching and unclenching his fists. "See, you're looking out for your friend, like I'm doing for mine. That's why we started this scheme, isn't it? So you could look out for Frank and Alice?"

Lily groaned. "I'm not having this conversation with you anymore. Leave me alone, all right? I told you I wasn't comfortable with talking to Peter about that yet, and I meant it. So stop trying to force it." Lily was about to leave, she really was, but the words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. "And you should talk, with the way you're always hanging off of Marlene all the time."

James laughed. "What?"

"I'm going." Lily said, but James stood up and blocked her path.

"Really, what?" he said, crossing his arms. "When have Marlene and I ever-"

"Get out of my way." Lily said, but James didn't budge. "All right, all the time. You think no one notices, but I do, and I'm sure Sirius and Mary will notice eventually. So much for looking out for your friends."

James shook his head. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"Just- let me go through, all right?" Lily shoved past him, but as she began walking away, she heard him laughing. Rage suddenly boiled up in Lily, and she whirled back. "Would you shut-"

"Potter? Evans?" Madame Pince was behind Lily, judging by her voice and James's shocked expression. "Is there a problem here?"

James met her eyes challengingly, but Lily just took a deep breath. She turned back to face Madame Pince. "No, Madame." she said. "We were just getting a little too loud, I guess."

Madame Pince frowned down at her. "Don't let it happen again." She turned and wandered off towards another section of the library.

Lily sent James the filthiest look she could muster before storming out.

* * *

Valentine's Day dawned clear and cold. Lily, Alice, and Mary had some fun getting ready that morning, partially out of excitement for the day, partially to soothe Mary's nerves over the Quidditch match that night. According to Mary, James had almost banned all of them from going to Hogsmeade at all (apparently worried that they would eat too much heavy food and lose focus) but the whole team had revolted. Still, Lily could tell Mary was on edge about the game. Hufflepuff and Gryffindor both had a shot at the Quidditch Cup this year, and a big win by one or the other could end the other's chances.

Or so Mary had explained to Lily and Alice about a thousand times this morning.

"You'll be fine." said Lily, hugging Mary as Alice hurried past them into the bathroom, half-dressed. "Potter is overreacting. You guys are a great team, Slytherin just got lucky and caught the Snitch early on."

"Yeah, because Sirius and I weren't paying enough attention to Nott." Mary said, fixing her makeup in the mirror.

Lily frowned. "Did Potter say that?"

Behind them, Alice hurried back out, in a completely different outfit. She crossed to her dresser and began digging through it for more clothes. "I think you guys have a good chance. Frank says Ludo is really nervous, too." She grabbed a few more items of clothing and hurried back into the bathroom.

Mary and Lily traded glances. "Alice, you okay?" asked Lily.

"Uh huh." Alice called from the bathroom.

"Hold on, Mary, I'm gonna go check on Alice." Lily squeezed Mary's shoulders. "You'll be fine, I promise." She knocked on the door, and, when Alice didn't respond, let herself in.

Alice was standing in front of the mirror, contemplating herself. She looked fine to Lily- she had put on a little bit of makeup and her hair was wavier than usual- but from Alice's expression, the girl might as well have been staring at a Boggart. Alice looked away when she heard Lily entering, and smiled.

"Just...just wanted to look nice, for today." she said.

Lily threw an arm around her. "You look great. I'm sure he'll love it, no matter what."

Alice looked down at the ground. "I'm not dressing for him, but..."

"But?" Lily asked, smiling.

"But it would be good if he noticed." Alice twisted to face Lily. "You really think this is a date?"

Lily shrugged. "I mean, less so now that you've both invited other people-"

"So he wasn't asking me out." Alice put a hand up to her hair. "Oh, no, he's going to notice that I dressed up, he's going to know-"

"No, no, I think he was asking you out, I think you both just need to...work it out, all right?" Lily said. "Talk to each other or something. He's probably just as nervous as you are."

"I guess you're right." Alice said. "Thank you for agreeing to come."

"Yeah, Ludo and I might wander around some, but I promise we won't be far." said Lily. "Don't worry, Alice, you two have been practically dating for years now."

"Are you and Ludo back on then?" Mary asked, entering the bathroom with them. She pulled out her wand and began applying some sort of enchantment to her hair.

"No, definitely not." said Lily. "We've been down that route before, we wouldn't try it again."

"You've been hanging out a lot lately." said Alice. "It seemed like you guys were flirting the other day, when we were studying."

"That wasn't-"

"I don't know, I think he might be interested." Mary tugged on one of her curls. "He hasn't asked out anyone in a while."

Lily laughed. "He is a nice guy, I guess."

"But what about Peter?" Mary met Lily's eyes in the mirror.

Lily shrugged. "Well, that doesn't seem to be going anywhere, does it?"

"Maybe if you tried to talk to him more." Mary said. "You kind of tend to brush him off."

"Mary." Alice said warningly.

"It's true!"

"I..." Lily sighed. "I don't know, all he ever wants to talk about is how great Potter is at Quidditch. That's not really my idea of a good conversation."

"He was talking about Transfiguration the other day." Mary reached up to pin her hair back into a neat bun.

"Fine, Mary." Lily said. "Why do you care so much, anyways? We're both happy the way we are."

"Yeah, but don't you think you should be taking the tattoo a little more seriously?"

Lily frowned. "We still don't know that it wasn't an error. We won't know until he gets his tattoo. When's his birthday, anyways?"

Mary just shook her head, turning back to the mirror. Alice glanced nervously between the two of them. "Maybe we should..."

"Look, Mary, you have a valid point, I'm just tired of people pressuring me to go be with him." Lily said, stepping away from Alice. "If the tattoo is right, then it's still between me and him, all right? I'll try to be a little more friendly."

Mary snorted but didn't meet Lily's eyes. "Who else is pressuring you? We're the only ones who know."

"Potter." muttered Lily. Alice and Mary turned to stare at her. "I didn't mean to tell him, he just came over and started bothering me after we figured out it was Peter. He won't let up on me either, and I think he's told Peter something to get him to come talk to me all the time."

Mary made a noise of disgust. "So that's what the two of you were fighting about during Herbology?"

Alice placed a hand on her shoulder. "Mary..."

"No, I'm fine." Mary said, leaving the bathroom. "Have fun on your dates!" she called, and then they heard the door slamming behind her.

Alice frowned. "I hope she and James have a good time today."

"Yeah." Lily said, but she couldn't help but feel irrationally guilty, like maybe she was somehow purposefully creating the wedge between him and Mary because of the stupid tattoo.

Alice was watching her with concern. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lily smiled. "Just...do you think Mary's right? About Peter?"

Alice made a noncommittal noise. "I think it should be your choice. You didn't have to get the tattoo, after all."

"But?"

"But I think you should try and give him more of a chance." Alice shrugged. "I don't know, I know you two don't seem like soulmates now, but maybe the tattoos know something you don't."

Lily wasn't sure whether to laugh or groan at what Alice was unintentionally saying. Instead, she squeezed Alice's shoulder. "Come on, let's go. Frank and Ludo are probably waiting for us."

* * *

Ludo and Frank were indeed waiting for them in the Entrance Hall. After the twenty minutes spent waiting in line for security checks, they finally managed to make it outside into the crisp winter air. As usual, the skies were gray and the air was chilly, but there was a pleasant breeze from the lake. Lily looped her arm through Ludo's, falling behind Frank and Alice for a moment.

"Mine changed her outfit about thirty times." she muttered. "And she's almost starting to believe it's a date. What about yours?"

Ludo laughed. "I swear, he went through at least a dozen identical robes because none of them fit exactly right. Still wouldn't admit it was a date, though. But hey, it's Valentine's Day, I'm sure the mood will strike them eventually." He raised his eyebrows at her.

Lily smiled. "What about you? Excited for the game tonight?"

"Oh, you know it." Ludo said, running a hand through his hair. "No, really, I think we've got the Cup in the bag this year. We've been practicing almost every day."

"I don't know, so have the Gryffindors." Lily said. "I've barely seen Mary all week. I think James has been pushing them hard."

Ludo looked down at her, wrinkling his nose. "I'm never gonna get used to you saying his first name like that."

"Like what?"

He shuddered, turning back to face Frank and Alice. "Like it's normal. We used to be allies in this, remember? The only ones this side of Slytherin who weren't completely brainwashed by Potter. Now look at you, on familiar terms with him and everything."

"I wouldn't say that." Lily said. "We still fight plenty. I think we mostly just try to get along sometimes for Mary's sake."

"Mmm."

Frank turned around. "Uh...so is there any place that you two particularly want to go? Alice and I were just discussing locations to visit, and we were just wondering what you two's opinions were."

"Oh, I think we're fine with whatever." said Lily, waving a hand. "Although, since it's Valentine's Day, there's always Madame Puddifoot's..."

Ludo groaned. "No way, I hate that place."

Lily giggled. "What? Why?"

"Just...it's really...weird." Ludo wrinkled his nose. "Like, there are flowers everywhere. And pretty teapots."

"I think that sounds lovely." said Alice.

"Yeah, and it's perfect for today." Lily sent a significant look to Ludo.

Frank nodded. "It does seem...seasonal."

"All right, all right, fine." said Ludo, holding up his hands. "If you three want to go to that girly place, let's go. But don't blame me if we end up poisoned or something."

"What, are you afraid you'll lose all your athletic abilities the moment you step into a girly shop?" teased Lily.

Ludo flexed one of his arms. "No flower could take on this. Sorry, Lily."

Alice laughed and Frank rolled his eyes as they turned back forward to continue whatever conversation they'd been having.

"Look, we'll take them in there for a bit, and then you can claim it's too much and we can both leave for the Hog's Head." whispered Lily. "Leaving the two of them, alone, on Valentine's Day, in an incredibly romantic shop. Sound good?"

Ludo grinned. "Lily, have I ever mentioned how brilliant you are?"

Lily laughed, but as she did so, Alice and Mary's words from earlier echoed in her mind. It was so easy to start flirting again with Ludo, a little too easy. But did it really matter? Her apparent soulmate (as in, not Peter) was obviously interested in someone else, and Ludo seemed to be interested in Lily right now, with all the flirting he was doing. So why listen to the tattoo? Why not just do things the old-fashioned way?

* * *

Madame Puddifoot's was every bit as romantic of a shop as its reputation suggested, almost sickeningly so. It only took Lily stepping through the door to realize that while she very much wanted to leave Frank and Alice alone here, she did not want to stay here for a moment longer than necessary. Alice, of course, was completely enraptured by the place, gazing around with her mouth open, and Lily suspected Frank was too busy being enraptured by Alice to really care about the restaurant. Ludo, however, was fidgety already. He made a face at Lily when she turned to look at him.

"Just sit for a few minutes." she whispered, and he sighed.

They picked a cramped table over in one corner, and Frank and Alice squeezed in on one side, leaving Lily and Ludo to fill the other one. When the waitress came by, Frank and Alice both ordered, but Lily and Ludo waved her off.

"You're not hungry?" Alice asked.

Lily shrugged. "Nothing looks particularly good."

"Yeah, and we just had breakfast." Ludo said.

"Oh, okay." Alice said, looking down at her lap. There was a pause. Lily expected Frank and Alice to pick up their conversation again, but instead, the silence stretched just a little too long. Alice was suddenly engrossed with a scratch on the table, and Frank kept fidgeting with his robe.

Lily bit her lip, wondering if the romantic restaurant was too much pressure. "So, um...excited for the game tonight?"

"Yeah." said Alice, immediately lighting up. "It's going to be so exciting! I have no idea who's going to win!"

"I do." said Ludo, grinning.

Lily gave him a look. "Be nice."

"Hey, it's the truth." Ludo said. "Come on, Frank, tell them about how much Marley and I have been practicing."

Frank tapped the table, looking over at Alice. "I don't think they've slept all week. They've, uh, been out on the Quidditch pitch every chance they get."

"It's going to happen this time." said Ludo, leaning forward. "We fell apart last year, but we're not going to let that happen again."

"Frank, do you like Quidditch?" Lily asked.

Frank shrugged. "I mean, I watch the major games and all. And of course I'm always cheering for Ludo and Marlene. But, uh, I guess I'm just not as into it?"

"Yeah, Frank's never been that crazy about it." Ludo said. "We've tried to get him to play with a us a few times, but it's usually just me and Marlene."

"Well, that's kind of like Alice!" Lily said, smiling. "She's never been crazy about Quidditch either, even though Mary loves it." It was transparent, but Lily just needed to get some sort of conversation going.

They were interrupted, however, when Alice and Frank received their tea. Alice leaned over towards Frank. "Ooh, that looks good." she asked.

Frank looked up at her. "Uh, I, uh...yeah, it was supposed to be really sweet." he said. He took a sip. "Yeah, yeah."

"Smells delicious." Alice said, reaching for the sugar. "I hope the tea is warm, it's so cold out today."

"Yeah, it is, actually." said Frank. "Which one did you get?"

Lily nodded over at Ludo, and Ludo quickly covered up a grin. "To be honest, I am feeling a little hungry after all." he said.

Alice immediately glanced back over to them, eyes wide. "Oh, no. Well, we can call the waitress back, I guess..."

"No, no, it's fine, I want something with more protein for the game tonight." Ludo said, slapping his hands together. "Look, why don't I just go on over to the Hog's Head, and maybe meet up with you guys later?"

"Alone?"

"I'll go with him." said Lily, standing up. "Sorry, I'm a little hungry, too. You guys have fun, though!" Ludo followed her out the door, both waving at the pair. As soon as they were outside, Ludo let out a huge sigh.

"Thank you for getting me out of there." he said.

Lily nudged him with a shoulder. "Was it really that bad?"

"What, you enjoy all that...frilliness?"

"Not particularly, but it's for a good cause." Lily jammed her hands in her pockets, shivering slightly at the snappy cold air. "I just hope things aren't awkward. They don't usually have actual awkward silences, you know? Even though they're both a little quiet."

"They'll be fine." said Ludo. "I just hope they realize they're actually on a date. Two people spending time alone on Valentine's Day, how could they not?"

"Hmm." Lily said, feeling her cheeks redden slightly. "So, you wanna actually go to the Hog's Head? I could use something to eat, and I promised Alice we'd be nearby if she needed us."

"Yeah, sure, sounds good to me." Ludo grinned down at her, offering his arm. "To keep my lady warm on this cold day?"

"I'm not your lady." Lily said, but she took it anyways, and she'd be lying if she said she didn't feel warmer afterwards.

* * *

The Hog's Head was crowded, as it always was on Hogsmeade weekends, but this holiday in particular had all the couples trying to get a table at any available Hogsmeade restaurant. When Ludo held the door open for Lily, Lily paused in the doorway for a second to try and spot any empty tables. Unfortunately, it seemed like all of them were filled.

"Should we go somewhere else?" Lily muttered.

Ludo shook his head. "No way. I'll get us a table." He flagged down one of the staff members and began a conversation with them, flashing his most charming smile at them every chance he got. Lily eyed him. She remembered that smile very well from the early stages of their relationship, when they'd still been so smitten with each other, before they figured out everything they didn't have in common. After a moment, Ludo and the man both laughed, Ludo clapped him on the shoulder, and he made his way back to Lily.

"No luck." he said, shaking his head. "But he's really a great guy. Said it was about a forty minute wait."

"Forty minutes?" Lily gaped. "Absolutely not. Is there anywhere else to go?"

"Ludo!"

Ludo and Lily turned to see Marlene waving them down. "Hey, Marley!" Ludo said, hugging her. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I'm here with Sirius, obviously." said Marlene, resting her hands on Ludo's shoulders. "We managed to find a place to sit by banding together with James and Mary. They're all out of two-person tables, as you may have guessed."

"Do you think you could get us in?" Ludo asked. "Maybe steal a few chairs from another table or something?"

Marlene smiled and grabbed his arm. "I don't know. Come on, let's try it."

"I'll be right back." Ludo said, waving to Lily, and Marlene and Ludo disappeared into the crowd, leaving Lily standing by the doorway.

Lily did her best not to feel irritated at Ludo for not asking first. She would really rather not spend her Valentine's Day anywhere in the vicinity of either James Potter or Sirius Black, even it would be nice to get some Hog's Head food.

After a few minutes and several odd looks from other patrons, Ludo appeared again. "Come on." he said, grabbing her hand. "Marlene got us seats."

"Ludo, wait." Lily pulled him to a stop. "Maybe I don't want to sit with them. We could go for a walk while we wait for our own table."

Ludo shook his head. "It'll be fine, Mary will be there, right? This way we can get our food faster."

"Fine." Lily said, dropping his hand and pushing ahead of him. The table was pretty close to the doorway, surprisingly- Marlene and Sirius, occupying one side of it, waved them over. Mary and James turned around to see them, but they looked a little less happy. Lily stopped, immediately grabbing for Ludo's arm again.

"Try not to fight too much." she muttered.

Ludo snorted. "I will if you will."

They took their seats, both smiling.

"Hey, Evans, Bagman!" Sirius said. "Glad you both could join us! I was actually just wondering, Bagman...how much are you hoping to lose by tonight? Because clearly you're going to lose at least a little."

Marlene punched him in the arm, but Ludo just laughed. "I don't know, Black, it depends on how many times you miss our Seeker, probably. Really great performance in the Slytherin game, by the way."

"I think you're at the wrong table to be saying those sort of things, mate." said James, tone deceivingly friendly.

Ludo shrugged, leaning back in his chair and resting one arm around the back of Lily's chair. "Hey, three Gryffindor players, two Hufflepuff players, captain versus captain, with the lovely Lily Evans to act as our neutral party. I think we're about evenly matched."

"Oh, no, don't count me as neutral anything, I am not getting in the middle of this." Lily said. She twisted around, looking for the waiter.

"Sirius has promised he won't go easy on me." Marlene smirked at Ludo. "I think he should just claim he's going easy so he won't be embarrassed later."

Sirius's "Hey." might've been more indignant had Marlene not accompanied her taunt by snuggling up closer to him.

Lily cut her eyes at Ludo, but he was watching the two of them, frowning. Mary wouldn't meet her eyes, either- she was staring into her drink, tracing rings around the rim.

"So, Lily, what have you and Ludo been up to this morning?" James asked, and Mary's frown deepened.

Lily stiffened. "Oh, we just, uh, left Frank and Alice at Madame Puddifoot's." Lily said. "Ludo wanted to get some real food before the game tonight."

Mary looked up. "Really? They went there?"

Lily smiled at her. "Yeah, it took a little encouragement, but they wanted to go someplace seasonal. When we left, they seemed to be enjoying it well enough."

"Oh yeah, how did that go?" Marlene asked, leaning away from Sirius. "How are they doing over there?"

"Um..." Lily traded glances with Ludo.

"It was a little awkward." Ludo admitted. "But they're never that awkward, I think it was mostly our presence." He reached forward, taking a sip of Marlene's drink.

"Ludo!" said Marlene, giggling.

"Sorry." He grinned back at her. "No one's taken our drink order yet."

Lily's irritation with this whole group outing was rising every second. "So, er, how are Remus and Peter doing?" she asked. "Are they back at the castle?"

Sirius shrugged, following Mary's example and looking moodily down into his drink.

"Yeah, they didn't really see any point in going." James said, resting his chin on one hand. "Guess if you don't have a date on Valentine's Day it's no fun to go out."

Before Lily could say something snippy in response, Sirius snorted. "That's only true if you think it is. They're just being mopey. We all used to have plenty of fun as a group on Valentine's Day, remember?"

"If I remember correctly, you used to drag each other with you on your dates whenever anyone was single." Marlene said.

Mary wrinkled nose. "Oh, yeah, I remember that phase. Sorry, Sirius, but that was so weird. It felt like I was competing with Remus's attention for you the whole time."

Marlene laughed. "Right? I mean, no offense, but-"

Sirius's grin had faded some. "Yeah, yeah, it's so funny. I can't help it that they're my brothers. Of course I want them on my dates with me!"

Ludo raised his eyebrows at Lily, and Lily stifled a giggle.

"Aww, thanks, buddy." James said, reaching across the table to grab Sirius's hand.

Marlene pouted. "Sirius, It's so hard to date you when you keep carrying on with other people, you know."

"That's what I tell him every day." James deadpanned.

Lily snorted. "You know, I wouldn't be surprised at all if your tattoos were each other, all four of you. Just one giant soulmate fourway."

"That's actually exactly what most of the Hufflepuffs have predicted for years." Ludo said, taking another sip out of Marlene's drink.

Sirius shook his head. "Nah, I'm not getting the tattoo. It's just a way for all the old Pureblood families to try and get their kids producing babies sooner. Would rather enjoy my freedom for a while, you know?"

Mary smirked at him. "Hey, if you got three other guys as your soulmates, I'm sure that would erase their dreams of grandchildren pretty quickly."

Sirius shrugged. "Maybe."

"I'm probably going to get mine this week on my birthday." said Ludo. He leaned back again, arm around Lily's chair. "I'm hoping whoever mine is, she's already got hers. That way we can find each other faster."

Marlene rested her elbows on the table, watching him. "And who do you think it is?"

Ludo shrugged. "I've got no idea. You're never supposed to really know, are you?"

"Oh, that reminds me." Marlene's stare, always a little too sharp, now rested on Lily. "Lily, I don't mean to pry, but you know we've all been wondering. Do you know who yours is yet?" She raised a hand towards Lily's wrist. "I mean, you're blank, but have you felt anything?"

"Uh..." Lily looked towards Mary for help, and Mary, bless her, apparently hadn't carried a grudge from this morning.

"She has some idea." Mary said, taking a sip of her own drink. "But really, Marlene, it's not anyone's business until she's sure."

"She thought it was a Marauder at first." Sirius said.

Marlene laughed. "No way."

"Yeah, Mary made her test it out and everything." As Sirius recounted the tale of that humiliating night, Lily's eyes drifted, almost reflexively, over to James. He was watching her, but when she met his eyes, he looked away quickly.

"Nah, I don't think you'd end up with a Marauder." said Ludo, and Lily turned to face his grin. "You've always had better taste, haven't you?"

James snorted. "Nice bragging there."

"It was a joke, James." said Lily mildly.

"I kind of hope mine is someone I know already, you know?" Marlene said. "Would make everything a whole lot easier." She took a sip of her drink, but, before she could put it back down, Ludo held out a hand, and she handed it over.

"I'm sure that's not all it's cracked up to be." said Lily. "What if you don't like them? Or what if they're already taken? At least with a new person, you get a clean slate."

Marlene waved a hand. "I'm sure the tattoos wouldn't do that. What about you, James, Mary? Are you guys thinking about the tattoo? What if you got each other, that would be neat, wouldn't it?"

Mary and James traded glances, with a bit too much uncertainty.

"Yeah." James said after a moment. "I guess that would be pretty cool."

Mary's mouth hardened and she nodded. "I mean, I guess it would also be _pretty cool_ to have someone new. But it's fine either way."

There was a long pause where no one seemed to know quite what to say. Ludo coughed. "When do you think the waiter will-"

"You know what?" said James, pushing his seat back from the table. "I should probably get back, actually. I don't want to get tired out before the game tonight."

Mary grabbed his arm. "No, come on, you can't! You promised me, remember?" Her tone was light, but her smile quickly faded when James shook her off.

Lily felt for Ludo's hand, and Sirius and Marlene traded uncertain glances.

"I've just...I've got to get back." James said, and then turned and hurried out of the Hog's Head, leaving the group in silence.

Mary laughed, but her tone was anything but happy. "I cannot believe it, on Valentine's Day..." When no one responded, she stood and hurried after James.

Lily looked back to the rapidly-shrinking group. "They've been fighting all week."

"It's just this Quidditch game." said Sirius. "He's just really nervous about this-"

"Black, he just blew off his own girlfriend on their Valentine's Day date." Lily said. Neither Ludo or Mary seemed to know quite what to do- both were shuffling in their seats, avoiding eye contact.

Sirius's mouth twisted. "Did you hear her? She wants to 'have someone new'?"

"Did you hear how unenthusiastic he was about his girlfriend being his soulmate?" Lily said. "Honestly, I don't blame her, after what he's done this week. Sorry, Ludo, I'm going after her, I want to make sure she's okay." She scooted back her chair as well, and pushed through the crowd towards the entrance. Wordlessly, Sirius followed.

Mary and James hadn't gone far- they were right outside of the restaurant, attracting plenty of stares by arguing loudly in the middle of the sidewalk. "Pretty cool?" Mary was shouting. "The idea of me being your soulmate is just 'pretty cool'?"

"It was a loaded question, what do you expect me to say?" James said. "We've never really talked about doing this long-term-"

Mary laughed. "Oh, is that your excuse then?"

Lily bit her lip. "Should we stop them?"

"Dunno." Sirius said. "I think it's been coming for a while."

"Excuse for what?" James said, drawing himself up to his full height.

Mary snorted. "Oh, I don't know, the way you've been acting lately? You don't bother to even talk to me at all, you're just always off with your friends or poring over Quidditch strategies. I had to beg you to go out on a date with me on Valentine's Day!"

"Hold on just a second!" James said. "You're the one who's always blowing me off for your friends, and the Quidditch thing is my job-"

"Not as much as you've been doing it!" Mary said, clenching her fists. "We can't be a good team if you keep redoing our entire game plan every few days because you're worried we won't win!"

Sirius flinched. "Oh, all right, that was a bit of a low blow."

"He's really that nervous?" Lily asked, mouth open.

"Evans, I'm pretty sure Prongs would give his life to win this game." said Sirius. "He's been running us ragged."

"Fine, then quit!" shouted James. "Break up with me and get off my team, go ahead, if it's really bothering you that much!"

Lily covered her mouth with one hand. "Oh, Potter, no."

"Maybe I will." Mary hissed. She shoved past him, stalking off towards the castle. James stared after her for a second, and then turned to cross the street, running a hand through his hair.

"I'm just going to..." Sirius said, pointing towards James.

Lily nodded. "Yeah, all right." After he left, Lily hurried after Mary, uncaring of the almost icy wind or the people she was shoving out of her way. "Mary! Mary, come back!" She finally caught up to her and stopped, panting. "Are- are you okay? I heard the fight-"

Mary's mouth was set. "Yeah, I'm just peachy. You know what? He's always cared about other people more than me. He cares about Sirius and Remus and Peter more than me. He cares about this Quidditch cup more than me. He even offers you advice on your dating life and yet he doesn't give a shit about mine. And I know we shouldn't be codependent on each other or anything, but is it too much to ask for him to just- try a little?"

Lily wrapped an arm around her. "No, no, no, of course not, he's been horrible this week, and I'm sorry for telling him about Peter-"

Mary rubbed at her eyes. "It doesn't even matter, he was the one pestering you about it. I don't even want to be his soulmate, you know? He's an ass, he'd be a horrible person to spend the rest of my life with. But he could at least act like the idea isn't completely awful."

"He is an ass." Lily said, nodding, and truly felt the words. How could James Potter do this? How could he think this was okay?

Mary laughed, sounding a bit like she had a head cold. "You tried to warn me, didn't you? I should've known that he was as bad as you said he was."

"He is." Lily said, mouth set. "He really is." And oh, how she itched to punch James right in his big stupid head at that moment, but she had more important people to worry about.

"I'm sorry." said Mary after a moment. "For pressuring you about Peter this morning. It really is up to you two."

"Oh, no, you don't need to apologize, you're having a bad week." Lily wrapped her arm around Mary's shoulders. "Look, let's just go back to the Common Room and wait for Alice, all right? It's too cold out here anyways."

"What about Ludo?" asked Mary. "Aren't you two sort of on a date?"

Lily shook her head. "He'll understand. I'm pretty sure Black left, too, so Ludo will have Marlene. They're pretty good friends."

"All right." Mary said, and then hugged Lily. "Thank you." She sniffed. "We can even go hang out with Peter and Remus, let you get to know your future husband more."

Lily couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, sure, Mary. Whatever you want."


	6. Chapter 6

By the time Alice returned from Hogsmeade, Mary had already left the Common Room to go change into her Quidditch robes. It had been a surprisingly enjoyable afternoon with Mary, Peter, and Remus- the two boys had mysteriously produced some food for them all to snack on, and they had spent their time talking, playing Exploding Snap, or watching Mary and Remus compete at wizarding chess. Peter had surprised Lily by coming out of his shell a bit, coaxed along by Mary. Although he was by no means talkative, he did turn out to be pretty funny, and even helped Lily understand some of the finer points of wizarding chess (because, even after almost six years, it was still incomprehensible to her).

At one point, James and Sirius crossed through the Common Room, but neither of them returned Peter's wave, something that Lily couldn't help but be grateful for. She wasn't sure if she could handle a conversation with James right now without strangling him.

After Mary had gone up to her room, James and Sirius walked by again in full Quidditch garb. Lily watched Remus's face this time- he had never been as expressive as some of his friends, but his lips were pressed tightly together, the Remus version of a frown **.**

"Are you and Black fighting?" Lily asked quietly. Hadn't James mentioned something about that?

Remus shrugged. "We may have had a disagreement."

"Yeah, they haven't talked to each other in a week." Peter said.

"He and Prongs have been busy with Quidditch." Remus pointed out. "And I really did want stay in today instead of going to Hogsmeade, I'm not being mopey. It's too cold outside."

Lily chewed her lip. It really wasn't her business at all, but Remus and Sirius had never seemed anything less but inseparable before. Before they could continue the conversation, however, Alice climbed through the portrait hole. Lily immediately stood and hurried over to her.

"Hey!" she said. "Sorry if you tried to find us, Mary and James had a fight..."

"Oh, it's fine." Alice said, smiling. "We should get ready to go down to the pitch, shouldn't we?"

Lily followed her up the stairs to the girl's dormitory. "Wait, Alice, how did it go?

"It was fine, just fine." Alice's voice was shrill. "Everything is fine." She hurried into their bedroom.

Lily paused in the doorway as Alice rooted through the drawers, tossing most of its contents onto the bed. "Alice, slow down, are you okay?"

"Yeah." Alice turned back around, smiling widely. "I'm fine. Everything's fine. Here, look, I found your Gryffindor scarf." She chucked it onto Lily's bed and turned back to the drawers.

Lily walked in behind her, gathering up a few of the things Alice has discarded and making a pile. Alice was usually a pretty neat person **.** "Hey, we've got a little while, we'll be all right. No need to hurry."

"I'm not!" Alice said. She pulled out her Gryffindor scarf and looped it around her neck, and then turned to face Lily, too-wide smile still on her face. "I'm just excited! Let's go to the game! **"**

"Alice..." Lily stared as Alice pushed past her and hurried out into the hallway. "What exactly happened with Frank?"

Alice stopped, and for a moment, there was something defeated in her stance. "Nothing happened." She turned around. "I told you, it's fine. Let's go to the game, all right?"

"All right." Lily said, following her down the hallway. "As long as you're okay."

* * *

Gryffindor's victory over Hufflepuff was a narrow one- Hufflepuff managed to get a huge lead (thanks in large part to Ludo and Marlene, who were in particularly good form today), but Hestia Jones put a stop to that rather quickly by catching the Snitch. James's grim, determined face as he held watched his Seeker hold the Snitch up high was a strange expression to see on his face. She'd never see him take something so she'd been hearing about his Quidditch obsession all week, so maybe it shouldn't have come as a surprise.

"So now the Quidditch cup is still up in the air." Mary complained at the afterparty that night. "It's going to come down to the next game for both of us, which means we're going to have to keep practicing really hard."

"That's good in a way, though, isn't it?" Alice said. "You still have a chance."

"You're so positive, Alice." Mary made a face. "I just want some sleep and a break from our tyrannical captain."

Lily rubbed her back. "Well, your next game isn't for a few months, so maybe you can stop practicing for a bit."

Mary shook her head. "You don't know James Potter. Well, I guess you do, but not as a captain. He is a beast. But I don't want to talk about Quidditch. Alice, how were you and Frank today?"

"Does anyone want any drinks?" Alice asked. "I'm gonna go get some food." She wandered off into the crowd, leaving Mary and Lily bemused.

"She was like that earlier." Lily said. "I can't tell what happened, honestly, they were fine when Ludo and I left."

Mary sighed. "What a dramatic Valentine's Day it's been."

"Has he apologized yet?" Lily asked quietly.

Mary's jaw clenched and her fist tightened around her drink. She shook her head.

"All right." Lily said, feeling her pulse begin to pound in her temple. "Okay."

Mary sent her a worried look. "Lily-"

"Hi, Mary, Lily." Somehow Peter had shouldered his way through the crowd and appeared in front of them. "That was a good goal James had, wasn't it?"

Lily didn't look at him. "Yeah. Great. Excuse me, would you?" She pushed past him and into the crowd, searching for a mess of black hair.

She found him, surrounded by admirers as always, and Lily was practically breathing fire now because how dare he get all this attention and completely ignore his girlfriend. Lily tapped him on the shoulder.

He turned around, grin fading slightly at her expression. "Oh, it's you."

"We need to talk." Lily said, crossing her arms. Her tone left no room for argument.

"Uh, fine." James said, and she turned and went straight for the portrait hole, trusting that he'd be following behind her. Once they were out in the hallway, Lily shooed away a few snogging couples and assumed the most threatening pose she could, given the height difference between them. James raised an eyebrow mockingly. "What? Am I in trouble?"

"You're an ass is what you are." Lily said. "You are going to apologize to Mary and do your best to make this up to her, or break up with her, but don't jerk her around. Mary is a wonderful person who deserves much better than you-"

"Hold on." James said, raising a hand. "If this is about today, she said much worse things-"

"Because you've been ignoring her all week!" said Lily, jabbing a finger towards his chest. "Honestly, I understand that you were worried about this game, but you've been worried about games before and still made time for your girl of the week. So if you just aren't interested in Mary, all right, but you need to tell her that, and not just ignore her."

James's mouth hung open. "Of course I like Mary. I wouldn't be dating her if I didn't."

"Then would you act like it?" Lily snapped. "In case you didn't notice, you nearly dumped her today, on Valentine's Day of all days. I don't pretend to have any power or knowledge over what goes on between you two, but I know that Mary's upset, and that you haven't done a single thing about it. So please, if you want to keep dating her, go apologize and tell her that."

"All right, Evans, you've made your point." James took a swig from the bottle he was holding and peeled himself off the wall. "I'll go talk to her, but this really wasn't necessary." He took a few steps away, and then turned back around. "And by the way, if I'm talking to Mary, then you should-"

"Don't you dare." Lily said, cutting him off.

James snorted. "What, so you get to lecture me about your best friend but I can't lecture you about mine?"

"Peter's not my boyfriend."

"Fine, fine, whatever, I get it." James rolled his eyes.

Lily snorted, glaring after him as he left. As soon as he was gone, she let out a sigh, sagging against the wall. She knew she probably shouldn't have done that but God, James was being a complete moron. And anyways, it was partially her fault they'd fought, she was doing the right thing to keep them together.

"Lily!"

Lily looked up as Ludo exited the portrait hole. He grinned, making his way over to her. "Hey, Lily! Long time no see!"

"Hey." Lily said. "I didn't realize you were here."

Ludo shrugged, taking a spot next to her on the wall. "Yeah, Marley and I try to do the courteous good-sport thing, go to the afterparties of the teams who beat us." He made a face. "But now she's in there practically shagging Black on one of the couches, so I'm out here."

"Oh." Lily said, sinking down into a sitting position. "Look, I'm sorry for leaving you in Hogsmeade this afternoon. Mary was just really upset, I had to help her-"

Ludo sat down next to her **.** "Oh, no, it's fine, I understand completely." he said. "Besides, Marley and I had a pretty good time afterwards, we just finished our meal and then walked around a bit."

"That sounds like fun." said Lily. "Did you happen to see Frank and Alice while you were there? I've asked Alice, but she refuses to talk about whatever happened between them today."

"Frank wouldn't say much either when I talked to him." Ludo said, shrugging. "Apparently there were a lot of awkward pauses. I guess the pressure got to them."

"Yeah." Lily rested her chin on her elbows. "I think I may have overdone it with Madame Puddifoot's and telling Alice it was a date and everything. She probably got her expectations up too high."

Ludo grinned, bumping his shoulder against hers. "Nah, I think you did just fine, I just think those two have problems communicating."

Lily snorted. "You think? And they would be so perfect for each other if they could just stop for a moment and admit they liked each other, but neither of them think they have a chance."

"That's always frustrating." Ludo turned to look at her. "When two people are completely perfect for each other and too stubborn to admit it."

"Right?" Lily said, looking up at him. She was momentarily distracted by just how close their faces were, but she barreled on. "I thought that was what this tattoo business was supposed to be about- getting the right people together without all the mess."

"You know, I don't think you're completely wrong there." Ludo murmured, glancing at her lips, and then he started leaning in.

Lily pulled back, giggling. "What- what are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" Ludo said, grinning. "Come on, we make a great team, this shouldn't really be a surprise, should it?"

"I guess not." Lily said, reaching up one hand to cradle his jaw **.** She kissed him softly at first, a bit cautiously. It was nice, in a way- he still kissed the same as he did back when they were in a relationship.

Ludo laughed a bit as he pulled away. "Well, that was anticlimactic."

"What do you mean?" Lily said with a grin.

Ludo shrugged. "I don't know, I always imagined kissing your soulmate to be more- fireworks, you know? Like a Cheering Charm going off in your head?"

Lily's smile disappeared instantly. "What- what are you talking about?"

"It's okay, you don't have to hide it." Ludo said, reaching for her hands. "I know it's me."

Lily scooted away from him. "Excuse me?"

"That's why you started talking to me again, isn't it?" Ludo said. "I mean, sure, I was a bit surprised, what with the way we broke up, but if the tattoo commands it-"

"No, no, no, that's not it at all." Lily said, shaking her head.

Ludo was still reaching for her. "Come on, Lily, you don't have to deny it, it'll probably be requited. Why wait a week until I get my tattoo? We can just start dating now and-"

"No, no, would you listen to me for a second?" Lily pushed him away from her, and he stopped where he was. "You are not my soulmate, all right? I am being one hundred percent honest about that."

"You know for sure?" Ludo asked. "Like, you absolutely know-"

"Yes, I do." Lily rubbed her temples. "And you know what? That's not even the point. I am so tired of people telling me who to date just because the 'tattoo commands it'."

"But you've got to listen to the tattoos, don't you?" Ludo said.

"No, you don't!" Lily stood up, voice rising. "Not when- not when it's completely wrong- and-" She took a deep breath. "Look, that doesn't matter. Do you even still want to date me now that you know I'm not your soulmate?"

Ludo glanced around as if hoping the answer would be written on one of the walls. "Um..."

Lily's heart sank, and she clenched her fists. "See? This is what I mean!"

Ludo stood, approaching her. "No, Lily, it's just, I've already made the appointment for next weekend-"

Lily stepped away from him. "You had no desire to date me until suddenly you started thinking your tattoo might tell you to. That's not- that's not real affection at all!"

"I wouldn't say that." Ludo said, flashing his stupid charming grin. "You're a wonderful woman, Lily, you're funny, smart, and really pretty, I might add-"

"But you don't care about any of that." said Lily, shoulders sagging. "Because you're getting your tattoo next weekend."

"Lily..." Ludo began.

Lily shook her head. "I'm fine. Do what you want. And by the way, I hope, whenever you find your real soulmate, you don't pressure her into admitting it like you did with me. I told you today I wasn't sure and wasn't ready for people to know yet."

"I- all right. Sorry." He rubbed his shoulder. "I meant well, Lily, I really did. I'm sorry."

Lily did her best to force a smile. "I know you did. Enjoy the party." She turned on her heel and hurried back into the Gryffindor Common Room, feeling suddenly exhausted. Why did this tattoo have to make her life so complicated?

Honestly, she had had about enough of this holiday- there had been far too many fights. She reached up to straighten her hair from where Ludo had messed it up during their snog, and by pure luck ran into Alice.

"Hey." Alice said. "Are you...are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lily said, smiling. "No, sorry, it's just...Ludo just tried to kiss me."

"Oh, that's great!" Alice said, but her smile faded when Lily didn't share her excitement. "What...what happened?"

"It was because he thought I'd gotten him for a soulmate." Lily said. "The whole time, all this this flirting, everything- if it weren't for the tattoo, he would've never wanted to get back together at all."

"Oh, Lily." Alice said, wrapping an arm around her and leading her to a couch in front of the fire. "Did you tell him you weren't?"

Lily nodded. "And, well, he's getting his tattoo next weekend." Only now was the disappointment coursing its way through Lily's veins- she'd actually gotten her hopes up for today. "Ugh, this is all such a mess. I'm so tired of people making this into such a big deal. Maybe I should just ask out Peter now and save everyone a lot of trouble." Except she couldn't even do that with her (supposedly) real soulmate, could she? Lily searched the crowd, looking for him. He'd apparently found Mary just fine- they were snogging over in one corner. Lily felt bitterness rise in her at the sight, quickly followed by guilt. She couldn't be jealous of Mary, Mary was her friend, and Mary deserved to be happy.

"Looks like they made up, at least." said Alice, following her gaze.

"Yeah." said Lily, hoping she sounded more excited than she felt. "At least someone's having a good night." She looked over to Alice, hoping to change the subject. "What happened with Frank today, anyways? I know you don't really want to talk about it, but it wasn't bad, was it?"

"Oh." Alice stared at the floor. "Um. I guess it wasn't as bad as what happened to Mary and you, but I...I just kind of froze, I guess. I kept thinking about how it was a date. I don't know, I haven't been on as many dates as you two, and...I kind of panicked."

"And?" Lily asked, reaching for her hand **.**

Alice shrugged. "And, nothing. We had talked maybe three times the whole time we were eating, and then we left. He didn't really try to say anything, either. I think you were wrong about him, Lily. I think if he liked me, he would've said something, right?"

Lily shook her head. "No, no, Alice, he was probably just as nervous as you were-"

"No, no, I think..." Alice stopped, squeezing Lily's hand. "I think he wanted to keep you and Ludo around, so he wouldn't...wouldn't have to be alone with me." She swallowed. "I think that I don't know why I believed someone like Frank would like someone as quiet as I am anyways."

"Alice..." Lily said, wanting nothing more than to wipe that sad expression off of Alice's face.

Alice turned back to her, and suddenly she was smiling again. "No, no, it's fine. Because now I know, I guess." She shrugged again. "I can move on."

"No, no, Al, he likes you, I know he does-"

"Please stop saying that." Alice said, tremor in her voice. "It's not funny and it's not true." She squeezed Lily's hand again. "Look, why don't we get to bed early tonight? We've both had a long day."

"Yeah." Lily said, standing and pulling Alice up with her. "All right. That sounds like a good idea."

She couldn't deal with any more of this tonight. Everything else would have to wait until the morning.


	7. Chapter 7

It wasn't until early the next morning that Mary returned to their room. Lily briefly woke up at the sound of the door closing, but did her best to fall back asleep- she was exhausted.

She did, however, in her half-awake mind, hear Mary approach her bed and pull back the curtain. But whatever Mary wanted to do, she seemed to think better of it, and a few minutes later, Lily was sound asleep.

* * *

The next morning, Lily was the last one up. She groaned and pulled back the curtain.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Mary was lying on her bed, working on homework. "You slept in late."

"Yeah, I was tired." said Lily, sitting on the edge of her bed. "Where's Alice?"

"I'm here!" called Alice from the bathroom.

Mary shrugged. "She's gone on a cleaning spree. I reminded her we have house-elves, but she just said-"

"It's relaxing!" Alice said. "And I could use some help if you want to!"

"Yeah, sure, just let me get changed first." Lily said, standing.

"Wait." Mary said in a low voice. "Before you- could I talk to you for a second?"

Lily sat down on Mary's bed, frowning. "All right."

"Just..." Mary stared into space, playing with her quill. "James told me about what you said to him last night."

Lily covered her mouth. "Oh, Mary, I'm sorry, that wasn't any of my business-"

"No, no, I should be thanking you for it, it's why he apologized." Mary said. "Just- why?"

Guilt briefly stole Lily's breath. "Um...well, I guess because you're my friend and Potter's an ass, so I didn't have the best self-control about that whole thing." Lily looked down at her lap, playing with the hem of her shirt. She hated lying to Mary. "And I guess I felt a little guilty?"

"Why?" Mary asked. "If this is about my comment about James and your love life-"

"Yeah." Lily rubbed the back of her neck. "I mean, I should've told him to piss off about that a lot earlier, right? Then maybe he would've paid more attention to you."

"That's not your fault." said Mary, grabbing her hand. "He's just protective of Peter. And look, that's up to you, too. If you want to date Ludo again, that is fine with me."

Lily laughed. "Oh, no, definitely not."

Mary's mattress creaked as she shifted. "What? What happened?"

"Oh, he was only interested because he thought I got him for a soulmate." Lily said. "He basically said as much when I told him it wasn't him. Which kind of works out, because now I'm suddenly remembering why we broke up in the first place."

"That ass." Mary said, rolling her eyes. "Well, you deserve better anyways. Seriously, Peter's a pretty decent guy, but if you're not interested, you still deserve much again for pressuring you about that."

"No, no, it's fine, and thank you." said Lily, stomach twisting. Would Mary still be so forgiving if she knew? "I'm- I'm going to go help Alice, all right? You enjoy a day out with your boyfriend. Kiss him a lot for me, will you?"

Mary snorted. "Weird wording, Lily, but yeah, I will."

Lily turned red. "Oh, God, no, I didn't mean it like that-"

"Really?" Mary said, grinning in a way scarily reminiscent of her boyfriend. "Because I think I'm going to have to tell him that you're passing on lots of kisses."

Lily covered her face with both hands. "No, come on, Mary!"

She turned and hurried into the bathroom, not quite quickly enough to miss Mary's shout of "I always knew you really fancied me, Evans!"

Alice gave her a look when she walked in. "Everything all right?"

"Yeah, it's fine." Lily lied. "Let's just do some cleaning."

* * *

It occurred to Lily over the next few days that she should probably convene another meeting of the matchmakers, since she was the only one who knew the full story of Frank and Alice's ill-fated date, but she was really reluctant to talk to two out of three of the group right now. It was strange, really, to finally be in a spot where she would rather talk to Marlene than any other member of a group.

She didn't know what it was about Marlene, honestly. Marlene was perfectly civil with all of Lily's other friends. They'd gotten off on the wrong foot, certainly- for the first two or three years of knowing each other, Marlene had been constantly nasty to Lily because she thought the other girl was stealing Alice and Mary, her childhood friends, away from her. After a few years, though, it should've become obvious that Mary and Alice weren't leaving Marlene anytime soon, and yet Lily still got the vibe that Marlene was upset with her over something. And Lily still felt a twinge of annoyance whenever she interacted with Marlene, too, for reasons she couldn't quite explain. It had gotten a whole lot worse early last year, when Marlene had been fooling around with James- both girls had spent a lot more time around each other, and proximity, in this case, bred contempt.

Lily supposed it was just something residual from their first three years of dislike. She didn't really know any other reason why they still couldn't stand each other.

It was a surprise, then, when Marlene approached her in the hallway one day. "Hey, Lily." she said. "We should talk."

Lily raised her eyebrows at Mary and Alice, and followed Marlene over to the wall. "Uh...hi. What's going on?"

Marlene leaned close. "When are we going to have another meeting?"

"Oh." Lily brushed her hair out of her face. "Um, I'm not sure, actually. Have Ludo and Potter been wanting to?"

"I don't know, Ludo hasn't mentioned it at all." Marlene said. "I thought you talked to them a lot."

Lily shrugged. "Some, I guess. Look, why don't you see if they want to meet? I've got a lot to do this week, I don't know if-"

"No, don't be like that!" Marlene said. "You're our closest contact with Alice, we need you there! If this is about what happened with Ludo-"

Lily stiffened. "He told you about that?"

"Yeah, I was there, Lily, I thought it was kind of rude for you to ditch him in Hogsmeade on Valentine's Day, although I understood why, and I'm sure he does, too." Marlene sighed. "Look, I'll talk to them if you want me too, okay? I just want to hear the details so we can figure out what to do next."

"Right." Lily said. "Just...let me know, all right? I've got to get to class." She adjusted her bag to hang more comfortably off her shoulder.

Marlene wasn't paying attention, instead staring at something behind her. "James is watching you." she muttered.

"What?" Lily turned around, and Marlene was right- James was looking at her with an unreadable expression as he and Remus walked by. When she caught his eye, however, he quickly glanced away. "Oh. He's probably still mad, we had our usual weekly fight on Saturday."

"Doesn't seem like it." Marlene said. "All right, I'll come find you later with the day and time. Goodbye."

"Bye." Lily said, waving, and set off for her next class, already feeling dread pool in her stomach at the thought of another meeting with James and Ludo.

* * *

Unfortunately, even with the other three scheduling Quidditch practices and Lily's prefect duties, they managed to find a time rather quickly. It just so happened that they were all free the very next night, so Lily reluctantly packed up her bags and books and told Mary and Alice she was going to the library.

"Want us to come?" Mary asked.

Lily did her best to smile. "Nah, think I just need to work in quiet for a bit. It's too rowdy in here. I'll be back before curfew."

"All right, have fun." Alice said, waving.

Lily had to laugh as she made her way out into the hall. Only Alice would sincerely tell someone to have fun while studying alone at the library.

The walk to the library was long with dread, and yet, all too soon, she was making her way behind the shelves to their customary table. The other three were already there. Thankfully, Marlene had sat next to Ludo, but that left Lily with the empty seat next to James. She took it, scooting as far from him as she could get.

"You're late." said Marlene.

"Sorry, I was almost done with an essay." Lily said.

Ludo just folded his arms, leaning back in his chair."So, what did you want us to talk about?"

"The date, of course!" Marlene said, far too loudly for the library. "Neither Frank or Alice will tell me what happened."

Ludo rubbed the back of his head. "Frank won't say much. Just that there were a lot of silences."

"That's what Alice said, too." said Lily, and, out of the corner of her eye, saw James look up at her. "She...she thinks that it means he doesn't like her." Lily rested her head on her hand. "I think we just made things worse."

Ludo didn't try to tell Lily she was brilliant this time, Lily noted. In fact, none of them said a word for a long moment.

Marlene chewed on her lip. "What, should we try the jealousy thing again? That got Frank to ask Alice out, didn't it?"

"No, I think Lily might be right." said James, and Lily looked over at him, surprised.. "I think that was already doing more harm than good. I don't want to make Alice uncomfortable or make Frank give up." He looked down at the table again. "Besides, if Frank already thinks Alice isn't interested because of that date, I don't think another guy moving in on her will help. And I do have a girlfriend to think about."

Lily's mouth fell open.

"Oh, right." Marlene said. "Is that what you and Mary were fighting about Saturday? Did she tell you to leave Alice alone?"

"No, actually." James said, a small smile gracing his lips. "I just think I was being a little inconsiderate to her, and I want to do better." He met Lily's eyes, and Lily realized she'd been staring and quickly looked away.

Marlene made a face. "All right, then that plan's out. What are we supposed to do?"

"I think maybe we should stop." said Ludo. "I don't think we're helping anything. We're just invading their privacy." He met their stares challengingly. "Look, before this, they were friends who might eventually become something more. Now they've been avoiding each other all week."

"I thought you said we might as well try because they're going to end up like that anyways." Lily commented dryly.

Ludo's eyes were hard. "Well, maybe I was wrong about how bad things could get between them." Lily rolled her eyes. "I don't want Frank to get hurt anymore, all right? Maybe we should just convince one of them to get the tattoo, and let that take care of itself."

"Right." said Lily. "Because that's the way it works, isn't it?"

Ludo sighed and turned back to the group. "I'm going to stop, anyways. I'd rather not see my best friend lose out on someone he loves because of some stupid scheme."

"All right, Bagman, we get it, go." James said coldly.

Ludo left without another word. Marlene leaned across the table. "James! Why did you do that?"

James shrugged. "He wanted to quit. What, was I supposed to beg him to stay?"

Marlene sat up straight, pressing her lips together. "You could've been a little nicer. Both of you could have."

"You're dating Sirius, Marlene, not him." said James.

"I wasn't-" Marlene clenched her fists. "He's my best friend, James, you defend your best friends."

"Yes, exactly." James said, holding her glare.

Marlene threw her books into a bag and stood. "Fine. If you're going to be so rude, I'm going after him. Both of you can bugger off." She stormed away.

Lily began quietly gathering her things, unsure of what to say. She sort of wanted to ask why James was upset with Marlene, but at the same time, she really didn't want to talk to him after their fight.

James apparently felt differently. "Wait, Lily." he said, packing his bag quickly and walking after her.

Lily turned back to him, hands on her hips. "What? Are you going to yell at me too?"

"No, I..." James rubbed one hand through his hair. "Let's just get outside, all right?"

Lily didn't think the proper way to handle this situation would be screaming and sprinting away, however much she wanted to, so she followed him out into the hall. "All right, what?" she asked. "And it better be fast, because I'm a Prefect, I can't get caught out beyond curfew."

James grinned. "Right, of course. We can walk and talk then." He ran his hand through his hair again as they set off through the halls. "I sort of...well, I wanted to thank you, actually."

Lily was so surprised she nearly dropped her bag. "What?"

"For, um, what you said on Saturday." James scratched his neck. "Most of it, anyways. You were right about a lot of things, and I think I needed to hear someone yell it at me to really listen."

Lily still couldn't comprehend what she was hearing. "What?"

"Come on, Lily, I'm telling you you were right and I was wrong for once, just take it."

Lily couldn't help but smile. "I- what? I'm sorry, James, this is just such an unusual circumstance-"

"What, you mean you being right, or me being wrong?" James teased.

Lily hit him lightly on the shoulder. "Neither, moron. I meant you actually admitting it."

"Right." said James, laughing. There was a short pause, much more comfortable than their silences usually were. "You know, you're not so bad."

"Thanks?"

"No, I mean it." James said. "We should try actually being friends, you know? I think we might be able to tolerate each other if we tried."

Lily snorted, suppressing a smile. "I suppose I could limit fighting with you to only four days a week."

"Make it three and we've got a deal." said James, and, then, unbelievably, he extended his hand.

Lily chuckled as she shook it, feeling oddly light after the tense meeting in the library. "The great Evans-Potter Treaty of Sixth Year." she said. "I'm sure it'll be in all the papers by tomorrow morning."

"Oh, yeah, of course." said James, stuffing his hands back in his pockets. "It'll probably make Mary happy, too, I know she was tired of us fighting."

Lily's smile faded a bit. "Right."

"So," James said, "for our first act as truce members, do you think we should give up on Frank and Alice? I think Bagman's full of it, personally."

Lily snorted. "Oh, he's probably just saying that to get at me."

James immediately looked over at her. "Wait, what happened?"

Lily waved her hand. "Long story. Don't particularly want to go into it. You can sleep in peace knowing that he's no longer a threat to Peter and I's eventual marriage, however."

"Right." James said, turning away. "You and Peter are going to make such a lovely couple."

"But I think Ludo might have had a point anyways." said Lily. "We did make things worse between them. And there's not much else we can do to try and fix things."

James ran a hand through his hair. "We could just try the straightforward approach. Just talk to them about what's going on."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

James shrugged. "I don't know, have you ever actually told Alice that Frank likes her?"

"Yes." Lily said. "More times than you'd believe."

James laughed. "Well, you could try to talk to Frank about it, then. Maybe he'd believe it coming from you rather than Alice."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "I don't know, that feels a little too invasive. And yes, I know, I was incredibly invasive with you and Mary on Saturday, but I'd rather not make a habit out of it. How about this...I'll get her permission first. Or better yet, try to convince her to talk to him and be honest herself."

"You think that'll work?" James asked.

After a moment, Lily shook her head. "No, not at all. But we've got to try something, right? This mess is our fault in the first place. Maybe I should just own up to that."

"Yeah." James said. "You know, I could try and talk to Frank some, pull the old 'I have a friend' trick. Because of course I happen to have a friend who's conveniently in Frank's exact situation, and since he's such a nice guy and I've exhausted all of my other outlets, I was wondering if he might give me some advice. Usually makes them realize they ought to follow their own advice."

Lily grinned. "How many times has that worked?"

"It got Sirius and Mary together fourth year." James said, shrugging.

"Wow, so you really have been studying to be a Love Healer all along." Lily said. "Mary was complaining about Black being indecisive for months."

James grinned. "Glad to hear you admit my true title."

"Oh, shut up." said Lily. "I never said you were a Love Healer, just that you were studying to be one." She frowned. "But, speaking of Sirius...what's your problem with Marlene? You guys usually seem pretty friendly."

"Well." James ran a hand through his hair. "Since you told me about Frank and Alice, I guess it's okay to tell you this. Remus may have told Sirius that Marlene was was only using him to make Ludo jealous."

Lily's mouth dropped open. "What?"

James shrugged. "Yeah. Sirius and Remus been fighting about it for more than a week now. Honestly, I thought Remus was just- well, he and Marlene haven't been on the best terms lately, but I started watching Marlene and Ludo, and I think Remus might actually have a point. Even if Sirius won't admit it."

"No way." said Lily. "She's never been interested in him at all."

James shrugged. "I don't know. Didn't you see them on Saturday? Sharing each other's drink, laughing together, sitting so close to each other..." He looked over at Lily. "If I'm being honest, I sort of thought that's why you two didn't like each other, because you both fancied Ludo."

"No, that's..." Lily said, but she began to remember little things from back when she and Ludo were dating, little comments by Marlene, sideways glances, the way Marlene always tried to squeeze herself in whenever Lily and Ludo were talking at meals. "I...wow, I think you might be right. About her, anyways."

James grinned. "Never thought I'd hear you say that."

Lily turned her nose up in the air. "Just doing tit for tat is all."

"Oh, right, of course, of course." said James. They were in sight of the portrait now. James let her go forward with a wave of his hand. "After you."

Lily rolled her eyes, smiling. "Oh, so kind."

* * *

Lily took the next opportunity she could find to talk to Alice- their next Potions class that Thursday. It wasn't just about setting her friend up, she felt guilty for making things worse between her and Frank. She really had to do something about it.

"Look, Alice, I want to admit something." she said, after she'd gathered her ingredients and they'd begun working.

Alice glanced up at her as she ground bits of bone into a powder. "Yeah?"

"I..." Lily sighed. "I've been trying to get you and Frank together, and I think I just made things worse. I'm sorry."

Alice's grinding became a little more vigorous at the mention of Frank's name. She frowned down at her pestle. "What do you mean?"

"I, well, Ludo and I left you two alone on purpose." Lily said, adding the first of the ingredients to the Potion. She began stirring slowly counterclockwise. "We knew you two liked each other, so we thought if you two were just alone in such a romantic place, you'd realize it. Clearly we were putting too much pressure on you and just made things awkward. I'm sorry."

"I told you not to say that." Alice said, dumping the powder into the Potion. "He doesn't like me like that."

Lily sighed, wiping her forehead as steam began rising out of the Potion. "All right, I'll stop. But...I didn't want to ruin you two's friendship. I think you should talk to each other."

Alice stopped midreach for the next ingredient. "Lily..."

"I don't mean romantically." Lily said quickly. "Just...you don't want to lose his friendship forever over something like this, do you?" She leaned back, letting the Potion sit, and reached for her knife and a root. "You don't even know what he was really thinking."

Alice was silent for a moment, uncorking a bottle of dark liquid. "I guess you're right." she said. "I just...I don't know how to start that conversation."

"You could try being his partner again in Herbology." Lily suggested, collecting up the slices of the root. "Wait, don't add that in yet, Alice, we've got to stir it again."

Alice waited as Lily stirred, and then add in a few drops from the bottle. "But wouldn't that mean you and Ludo would have to be paired together?"

Lily made a face. "I can handle him, don't worry about me."

"Oh." Alice said, watching as Lily slowly added in the bits of roots, and then began stirring. "Well...thank you."

"Please, this whole mess is my fault, it's the least I could do." said Lily, smiling. "Now, hand me some more bones, we don't have much time before it boils over."

* * *

Because of their schedules, they didn't get a chance to enact their plan until the next week, the last week of February. Alice and Lily hurried to Herbology that day, racing over the grounds to get to the right tables. When Mary complained, Lily turned around, quickly walking backwards.

"Alice wants to talk to Frank." she panted.

After that, Mary hurried as fast as any of them did.

They managed to arrive there before Frank and Ludo- in fact, they managed to reach the greenhouse before Professor Wood did. He gave them curious looks as he unlocked the greenhouse and let them in, but didn't comment further. In a student body that included the Marauders, it was assumed that there would always be a little mayhem going on.

Alice sat down at the usual spot where she and Frank used to sit, and Lily sat across from her. Alice was slightly shaky as she dug out her supplies for the day, nearly dropping a pair of garden shears on her foot, and she flinched whenever she heard the door opening.

"Alice." Lily whispered, pulling on her gloves. "It'll be fine. You're just trying to be friends again, okay?"

Alice nodded, and then promptly knocked her gloves off the table when the door opened again. As she was bending down to pick them up, Frank and Ludo approached their table.

"Well, all right." said Ludo. "Let's go, Frank."

"Wait!" Lily called, and the pair turned back. Lily raised her eyebrows at Alice.

"Um." Alice said, clasping her hands together to keep them from shaking. "Uh..." She squeezed her eyes shut. "Um, Frank, can we talk?"

"Oh." Frank took a step back. "Uh, all right. If you want to." He took a seat next to Alice. After a moment, Ludo sighed and sat down next to Lily.

"Isn't this convenient." he muttered, reaching into his bag and taking out his gloves and goggles.

Lily tensed as she pulled on her goggles. "What do you mean?"

"You're trying to initiate contact with me right after I got my tattoo." Ludo snorted. "Maybe I wasn't wrong. Even if I know now you're not my soulmate."

Lily rolled her eyes. "No, Ludo, you were wrong. Totally wrong. I actually totally forgot about that. and my wrist is still blank, see?" She waved it at him. "I'm just trying to..." She lowered her voice. "Just want them to talk again."

Ludo stopped unpacking for a moment. "I thought we gave up on that."

"No, you did." Lily said. "Besides, she wanted this, too. She misses talking to him. It's going to make things better for them."

"It better." Ludo said, slipping on his gloves. "He's my friend, Lily, and I don't like seeing him hurt."

"You didn't seem to have a problem with it when you were encouraging the jealousy plan." Lily muttered.

Ludo ignored her, turning to face the front as they received their assignment for the day. It wasn't too bad- they were just going to be doing some pruning.

"I'll go get us some plants." Ludo said, sighing, and he left. Lily looked across the table to see that Frank had followed suit. She smiled at Alice, and Alice cautiously smiled back.

Ludo returned a bit too fast for Lily's taste and placed the plants down on their table. Today's assignment seemed simple- all they really had to do was clip off the smaller leaves- but, since they were in the NEWT-level class, of course it wasn't going to be that easy. The plants they were working with today were docile compared to some of their other assignments (as in, they didn't actively try to attack people), but they could be poisonous if handled incorrectly. In particular, they had small purple pods on them, containing pus often used to strengthen Potions. This pus was dangerously corrosive, and could leave burns on exposed skin or weaken fabric and create holes if the pods burst.

Because of this, Frank and Alice worked in silence for a bit, as did Lily and Ludo. Lily did her best not to actively stare at Frank and Alice, but she was curious- they had been talking quietly throughout Professor Wood's explanation. Alice still was slightly hunched over, though, and Frank seemed to be doing his best to avoid touching her.

"I'm sorry." Alice said quietly after a moment. "I- I didn't mean it like that."

Frank shook his head. "No, no, no, I think maybe you were probably right. It, it was a mistake, I shouldn't have tried to ask you, and I'm sorry."

Ludo side-eyed Lily as he added a few leaves to their growing pile of clippings. Lily bit her lip.

"No, no, no, that's not it at all!" Alice said, placing a gloved hand on Frank's arm. Frank looked down at it, and then up at her. "We- we spend time together all the time, Frank, it wasn't a mistake to want to spend more time together." Alice looked back at the plant, picking up her shears again. "I, I guess...it was my mistake. I, uh, just got a little nervous, because I..."

Lily's eyes widened, but she kept her gaze down at her plants.

Alice put down her shears. "Well, um...since it was Valentine's Day, and we went to that place, I sort of thought...I sort of thought it was a date."

Ludo and Lily both paused and looked up at the pair, before realizing what the other was doing and continuing their work. Frank, after pruning another part of the plant, set his tools down, looking at Alice. "I can see how you might think that." he said faintly.

Alice ducked her head. "It wasn't, was it?" she asked teasingly, but her voice was shaking.

"Uh..." Frank was twisting his gloves, nearly pulling them off. "Um..."

After a moment, when he still didn't come up with an answer, Alice met his eyes again, lips parting. "It...it was?"

"I." Frank laughed, picking up his shears and turning back to his plants. "I mean, you're not interested, so, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have assumed, and I didn't mean for us to go to such a romantic place, although I didn't think it was too bad, and I'm sorry for not talking to you, I just got so nervous, a- a- and I'm so sorry-"

"Frank?" Alice said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Frank looked up at her, and Alice leaned in to kiss him.

"Oh my God." whispered Lily.

Their safety goggles bumped against each other, preventing them from reaching each other's lips, and they both broke away, giggling.

"Maybe we should, uh, wait til after class." Frank said. He paled. "Um, you were trying to-"

"Yes, of course." Alice's smile was radiant- she had always been pretty, but right now, it actually hurt Lily to look at her. "Of course I was!"

Lily turned back to her work, smiling. Ludo let out an impressed 'hmmph'.

"That worked out better than I expected." he said.

Lily grinned. "Yes, it did."

"Hey." said Ludo. "I really was trying to do the right thing."

Lily shook her head, not wanting to let him ruin her good mood. "So who did you get, then?"

"What?" asked Ludo.

She gestured with her shears to his wrist. "You said you knew it wasn't me, which I take to mean you've figured out who it was?"

"Yes, actually." Ludo said. "It's...a bit complicated, but I'm sure you'll find out soon enough."

"Well, that's ominous." muttered Lily, clipping off another leaf. The conversation she'd had with James suddenly occurred to her. "She's not taken or something, is she?"

"What?" Ludo slipped, nearly bursting one of the pods. "Why would you ask that?"

Lily shrugged. "You said it was complicated. I could see that being complicated."

"I told you, you'll find out." said Ludo, and Lily, with great strength, resisted rolling her eyes.

* * *

The flush of happiness from Frank and Alice getting together still hadn't worn off by lunchtime. Instead of Frank carrying Alice's books, Alice had kissed him on the forehead and told him he never had to do that, and they now walked hand-in-hand whenever they had class together. In class, however, it didn't change that much- they still were as ridiculously in love as they'd always been, except now there was more giggling and smiling and touching than there was before.

Because of this, Lily walked alone to lunch. Usually, she and Frank and Alice and Ludo all walked together from History of Magic, but Ludo had hurried out of the classroom as soon as it was over, and Lily wanted to give Frank and Alice some alone time. It was only when she spotted James (and the rest of the Marauders) in the entrance hall that she realized- since Mary had already found out, right after Herbology, there was still one person who might want to know.

She hurried over to him immediately, grabbing his arm. "James!"

James only had a moment to send a confused look to the other Marauders before he was pulled away. "What? What's going on?" he asked, breathless, as she tugged him out of the crowd.

Lily grinned. "They're together! We did it, James, they're together?"

"What?" James's smile grew. "Are you serious? What happened?"

"The straightforward way worked." Lily informed him. "Alice wanted to talk to him anyways to get back to being friends, so she rejoined him in Herbology, and then Frank let it slip that he was trying to ask her out, and then Alice tried to kiss him but they were both wearing their goggles- I'm surprised you didn't notice, actually-"

James waved a hand. "Mary and I weren't exactly focusing in class today."

"James-"

"But that's great!" he said. "I'm glad it worked out! We did it!"

"Yes, we did." Lily said, and, driven by some mad impulse or the excitement of the occasion, she hugged him. "Thank you for helping me with this."

"Oh, I didn't do much." James said, but he hugged her back. "The jealousy thing didn't really help."

"Yeah, but you came up with the idea to get them together in the first place." Lily said, pulling back with her hands on his shoulders. "I honestly wouldn't even have tried if it wasn't for-"

"Prongs!" Peter said.

Lily blinked, letting go of him and stepping away. She hadn't even noticed Peter coming up to them, and when had the Entrance Hall gotten so empty?

"Hold on, Pete, I'm in the middle of something." James said.

Peter shook his head. "No, you need to come. Padfoot's- you just need to come help him."

"What?" asked James, and then he hurried into the Great Hall, Peter behind him. After a moment, Lily followed.

A small crowd had formed around a commotion at one end of the hall. Lily glanced up towards the teacher's table, but the crowd seemed not to have attracted their attention, yet. James pushed through the crowd until the trio got to the center, next to where Remus stood.

Sirius and Marlene were standing there, yelling at each other, Ludo slightly behind Marlene.

"You don't even have your tattoo!" shouted Sirius. "You don't know that it's right!"

Marlene shook her head, arms folded. "I do, Sirius, I do. I'm sorry, but I think I've suspected this for a while."

Sirius's fists clenched. "Then why'd you date me at all, then? What, were you just trying to make him jealous?"

Next to Lily, Remus winced. Lily reached over and squeezed his shoulder.

Marlene sighed. "I'm sorry, Sirius,I thought you knew we were casual. Ludo and I are soulmates, we're-"

"Fine." spat Sirius. "Whatever. Bugger off." He turned on his heel to storm through the crowd, and caught sight of Remus. For a moment, there was some sort of frozen stare between them, and then Sirius turned away, shoving through the crowd.

"I"m going after him." James muttered, and Peter silently followed. Only Remus stayed put as the crowd dispersed around them. Marlene and Ludo talked quietly, taking each other's hands.

"Aren't you going to go find Sirius?" Lily asked.

Remus shook his head. "He doesn't want me to. He'll just think I'm rubbing it in."

"I'm sure he won't think that." Lily said, rubbing Remus's shoulder. "You two were best friends before this, he can't be that upset with you."

Remus laughed. "Lily, his girlfriend just completely dumped him for her soulmate, without even so much of a warning even though she apparently knew. He's upset with everyone." When Lily didn't respond, Remus sighed. "Think I'll just eat quickly and leave today."

"Scuse me, I've got to go to the bathroom." Lily mumbled, and practically ran out of the Great Hall to the closest bathroom she could find. She locked herself into one of the stalls, breathing hard.

Because it wasn't Sirius and Marlene and Ludo that she was picturing right now, it was herself and Mary and James. Mary shouting at Lily, who had known, all this time, and never told her, Mary and James breaking up, Mary storming off, completely heartbroken, and all of it was Lily's fault- Lily suddenly felt like she wanted to throw up. She couldn't tell Mary now, especially since she didn't even know if James would have her name back, but every moment she waited just made things worse when Mary did find out. Why had she been given this tattoo? What the hell was the universe thinking?

When she felt under control again, Lily shakily stood, leaving the stall for the sinks. She washed her hands and splashed a bit of water on her face, hoping she looked normal.

And then the bathroom door creaked open. "Oh, hello." said Marlene, walking in.

"Yeah, hi." Lily said, not even bothering to hide her irritation. "That was some breakup out there."

Marlene stopped, joining her at the sinks. "Look, I feel bad, I do. But I think it was better to do it now, rather than wait for my birthday."

"How?" Lily snapped. "Did you see Sirius?"

"Yeah." Marlene said, looking down at the sink. "But...we've only been dating for maybe a month. Can you imagine if we'd been going out for a few months, and then this whole thing happened? Even worse, that I knew Ludo and I were soulmates for this long?"

"How do you know?" Lily said. "Couldn't it be unrequited?"

Marlene shrugged. "Unlikely. Besides, I sort of have you to thank for that."

Lily stiffened. "What?"

"Well, it's only because you and Ludo got so involved that I realized I liked him." said Marlene. "I would never have known if I hadn't been so jealous of you. Sorry for being so petty, but it's not like you were much better."

Lily folded her arms. "Look, Ludo is all yours, I don't care-"

"No, about James." Marlene leaned against the sink, fixing Lily with a stare. "Isn't that why you get so irritated with me? Because you fancy James?"

Lily felt like she was falling, falling into the dungeons below. "N-no." she said, forcing a smile. "No, why would you- that's not at all- I just didn't like that you were being rude to me."

"Hmm." said Marlene. "Didn't seem like it. Doesn't seem like it."

"No, would you- I've got to go." Lily hurried out of the bathroom, heart pounding. She stopped in the middle of the Entrance Hall, taking a deep breath.

Marlene had to be wrong, and yet...Lily hated to watch him snog Mary, and couldn't help but laugh at his dumb jokes, and his hug had made her lose track of her surroundings, and she always felt better after their friendly conversations, and she'd assumed him and Marlene were flirting even though they'd been over with for a year, and she'd gotten so upset with him for trying to set her and Peter up, and she felt so guilty over taking his time away from Mary, and she did find him attractive, she did, and she'd always had a thing for cockiness, and she hadn't even noticed this whole time-

It couldn't be true. Marlene had to be wrong. But what if she wasn't?

"Oh my God." Lily said, pressing her hand to her forehead. "Oh, my God."

She couldn't do this. Mary would be hurt enough if she found out about the tattoo. There was only one thing to do.

Steeling herself, Lily marched into the Great Hall, passing Mary and Alice, and approaching where James, Peter, and Sirius were eating a very subdued lunch.

James looked up. "What? Something happen?"

"No, I need to talk to Peter." Lily said, aware that her voice was a bit too high-pitched. "Now."

Peter stood and followed her out of the hall. Lily breathing deeply the whole way, until finally, when they were alone, she turned around.

Peter grinned. "What is it? Prongs already told me that-"

"No, it's not that." Lily said. "See, the thing is..." She closed her eyes, taking a final deep breath. "The thing is...you're my soulmate."


	8. Chapter 8

Peter's eyes were wide. He hadn't said a word.

"You're my soulmate." Lily continued, "and I'm sorry for not telling you earlier, but it's just, since we don't have that much in common, I thought we could maybe relax and not make it into a big deal. I just- I just wanted you to know-" So she could stop lying about why she refused to tell him? So she could get a safe distance between herself and James? "-just because."

"Wait, but that doesn't-" Peter squinted into space, as though he were trying to figure out a complex Arithmancy problem, and then shrugged. "Okay."

"Okay?" Lily asked. She had expected at least a little bit of a reaction.

Peter shrugged again. "Okay." He turned to start walking back into the Great Hall, and then looked over her shoulder. "Coming?"

"Yeah." Lily said, following him. "And, um, it's all right if you want to tell people."

"Oh." said Peter. "Okay."

* * *

Back in the hall, she could feel Mary and Alice's eyes following them before she sat down. There was a brief silence as Lily put food on her plate.

"So...?" Mary asked.

Lily met her eyes. "I told him." She looked away, remembering her conversation with Marlene, and dug her fork into her food. "But that's not the big news, is it? I'm surprised Alice managed to stop snogging Frank long enough to sit with us."

Alice blushed and looked down, but Mary was not so easily distracted. "You can't just leave it at that! You actually told him? What did he say?"

Lily paused, chewing. "You know, he didn't really react. He just kind of said 'okay'."

"Maybe he was too surprised to really think of anything?" Alice suggested.

"Or maybe he knew." said Mary. "His birthday was months ago, he might've gotten his tattoo already."

"Yeah, but then it would've shown up on both our wrists." said Lily. She really hoped he hadn't gotten it, anyways. Then her lie would be obvious, and Mary would know-

Marlene had to be wrong. There was no way Lily liked James.

Alice frowned. "Are you sure his birthday is already gone by? I thought for sure he had it in a month."

Mary shook her head. "No, that's James."

"Oh, right." Alice returned to her food. "Wonder if James'll get the tattoo."

"I don't know." said Mary. "He's still got the whole month to decide, we're not even into March yet. I don't know if he knows if he wants the tattoo yet, either."

"What do you want him to do?" asked Lily, trying to sound casual.

Mary shrugged. "I mean, I've been holding off getting mine because of this whole relationship, because there are so many ways it could screw it up, you know? Like, even if we get each other, it's still a lot of pressure. So, I don't know, it might be nice for him to wait. But, hey, it's his decision, not mine. I honestly never thought we'd last this long, anyways."

"What about you?" Lily turned to Alice. "Are you going to get it now that you and Frank are together?"

Alice shook her head. "No, I'm still not interested." She scooped another spoonful of potatoes onto of her plate."Honestly, even if I got the tattoo and it wasn't him, I think I'd stay with him."

"Really?" asked Mary, frowning.

Alice shrugged. "I don't want anyone else. I've just always wanted him."

"Wow, you really are a rebel after all." teased Lily. "I'm the only conformist here. And possibly Mary, if she ever wanted to."

Mary looked back down at her food. "I don't know. I do like the idea of knowing, but...I'm not sure, I guess. I think I'll just wait on it, see what happens."

"Well," Lily said, "clearly knowing for sure doesn't make everything better." She tapped her wrist. "Peter might know now but I highly doubt either of us are about to rush into each other's arms."

"He's not so bad." said Mary. "Come on."

Lily shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. It just doesn't seem like we have much in common, you know? Maybe you should've gotten him instead if you think he's so great."

Mary snorted. "What, you wanna trade? Him for James? Yeah, I think you'd prefer hanging onto Peter so none of us would have to deal with that disaster."

Lily stuttered out a laugh. "Well, at least we know Alice isn't gonna trade anytime soon."

"I'm calling it now." said Mary. "They're going to be the kind of couple who will shag like rabbits. We aren't going to see anything of Alice for the first few weeks of them dating."

"Mary." said Alice, giggling. "No, of course not."

"Yeah, you better not." said Lily. "You two are both dating now, I'm going to be all alone. Poor single Lily Evans."

"There's always Snape." suggested Mary.

Lily snorted. "Don't even joke about that."

* * *

Lily barely made it through the rest of the day, struggling to act normal around Mary and the Marauders. She just wanted to go back to this morning, when she was excited about Frank and Alice getting together and nothing else had happened- not the scene in the Great Hall, nor her and Marlene's conversation, nor her telling Peter about her tattoo. Everything had gotten so complicated, and she had no idea what to do.

She lost herself in thought about it later that night. Alice was off with Frank, and Peter had come over to ask for Mary's help with Transfiguration again, so Lily was content to let her mind wander as she struggled to come up with a solution.

There was no question in her mind that she had to get over James. Mary was much more important. And she'd gotten over worse crushes before, she could get over- whatever this was, even if it might take a little while, and she'd have to work hard to hide evidence of her feelings from everyone else. But what to do until then? Lily wanted her tattoo to stay a secret at all costs, that was something to focus on. So how could she do that?

Peter Pettigrew had seemed the obvious path, but, now that she'd calmed down, Lily didn't like the idea of using him like that. He may have not been her favorite person, but she still didn't want to lead him on or lie to him and date him if she wasn't really all that interested in him. As it was, her best option would be to try and keep things moving slowly, keep Peter at a distance. He didn't seem too keen on being soulmates, anyways. Maybe they could just forget about this whole thing.

However, if Peter or James got their tattoo, it could ruin things. It had been a few months since Peter's birthday, so Lily didn't really think it was likely for him to get his tattoo- he'd always seemed a bit superstitious, maybe he believed the rumors about curses and bad luck attached to the tattoos- but James presented a bigger problem. James didn't like her, he liked Mary, so all the tattoo would do was complicate things further. Even worse, James getting a tattoo would mean his name would appear on Lily's wrist,so Mary and Peter and Alice and everyone would find out then. If it was requited, it would break Mary's heart and Lily would have betrayed her, and if it was unrequited, Lily still should have told her far, far earlier and Mary would still probably end up hurt.

So really, it was probably better for everyone that James not get his soulmate tattoo. He and Mary could stay happily together, and Lily wouldn't end up hurting Mary. Better Mary just never find out. All Lily had to do was get over James, and then stop him from ever getting his tattoo.

She had no idea how she was going to accomplish that.

Lily was broken out of her reverie by someone sitting down at the table. She looked up, surprised- Mary and Peter had moved over to a set of armchairs, apparently to get more comfortable, and James Potter himself was now sitting across from her.

"Really, Lily, I get that I'm handsome, but you should save those seductive stares for your soulmate." he said.

"And you should save your flirting for your girlfriend." said Lily, cheeks reddening. "Go drop in on her, I'm working."

"Oh, of course, you've been staring into space for twenty minutes now." said James. "Admit it, Lily, you don't love schoolwork nearly as much as you'd have us all believe."

Lily rolled her eyes. "I never wanted that reputation, you know. Maybe I went a little overboard with the reading first year, but I'm Muggleborn, it was all so fascinating to me!"

James grinned. "Nah, you're just a goody-goody Prefect and there's nothing you can do about it."

Lily sighed, smiling despite her anxieties. "Any particular reason you're over here?"

James glanced over his shoulder at where Sirius and Remus were talking quietly. "Leaving them alone, and don't feel like talking about schoolwork right now." His gaze turned serious, and he leaned towards her. "Besides, we need to talk."

"Do we?" Lily said shrilly.

"What's wrong?" James asked.

"Nothing." Lily inched her way backwards. "I...nothing. Look, what do you want to talk about?"

"The other couple, remember?" James said. "You said if I helped you with Frank and Alice, you'd help me with a second couple."

"Oh, James, I don't know." Lily said, rubbing one arm. Another matchmaking mission would mean a lot of time alone with him, and that was a terrible idea right now. ""Nothing we did to Frank and Alice really worked, remember?"

"Come on, you promised!" said James, reaching across the table. "And this couple isn't Frank and Alice, there's no way they're going to get together without some help."

Lily scooted her chair back slightly. "What's so wrong with them?"

"Well, they're not in denial." said James, lowering his voice. "I know at least one of them has fancied the other for years. The other just figured it out recently, but they keep trying to distance themselves."

Lily swallowed, mouth suddenly dry. "That...doesn't sound like anyone I know."

James ran a hand through his hair. "I think you might, actually."

"So why don't they just...tell each other?" Lily asked, a bit breathless. She wanted to look down, she really did, but the intensity of James's gaze was making it difficult.

"Fear." said James. "They're afraid of what might happen." He ran a hand through his hair again. "One has been taken until recently, so that was bad enough, but they're both a little scared that the other might not feel the same way. Which sounds what Frank and Alice were going through, except I think they're also scared of what might happen if they both do like each other. You see, one's never really dated and is scared of messing something this important up, and the other's dated but never seriously and is kind of scared of commitment. So." James looked down at the table. "A lot of fear."

"That's...very in depth." said Lily, struggling to keep her pulse at a normal rate. "You know these two well?"

James smirked. "Well, of course. You're looking at them."

"What?" Lily said, reddening. "What do you..." She trailed off, realizing James was gesturing over his shoulder to where Remus and Sirius sat. "Oh. Oh! Oh, Merlin, James, are you serious?"

"You're saying you've never noticed?" James asked. "And neither of them will do a thing about it. Sirius didn't get his tattoo on his birthday because he thinks it's Pureblood rubbish, and Remus doesn't think anyone deserves a...well, you know, as a soulmate, so he's probably going to refuse to get one, too. And I know Sirius knows, at some level, but he just keeps getting into these flings. I think he just doesn't want to deal with seriously liking someone, but it's starting to take a toll on Remus."

Lily nodded. "All right. So you want to, what, find a way to make them confess to each other?"

James shrugged. "More or less. I mean, I'd let them figure it out themselves, except it really is starting to hurt them both and their friendship, and, well, I don't like it when that happens."

Lily stared over his shoulder at Sirius and Remus, trying to recall if she'd ever seen any hints of what James was talking about. "So Remus has known for a while, huh?"

"Yeah." James said. "My best guess is since fourth year. I don't think Sirius realized until late last year, though."

Lily shook her head. This was a terrible idea, but at the same time, Remus was her friend, and he deserved to be happy. "That's got to be hard. All right, you know what? I'm in."

James grinned. "Great."

"Yeah, you know, since I'm not going to have a lot of worrying to do about my grades." muttered Lily, unable to resist.

"Oh, admit it." said James. "You worry about them constantly. You've got color coded schedules of all the times you do homework, you cry if you get less than an O-

"I have literally never done any of those things-"

"-you're probably thinking about homework right now-"

"Shut up!" Lily laughed as Mary wandered back over to their table, Peter in tow.

"What are you two fighting about?" asked Mary.

"Lily and I were actually having a pleasant talk." said James. "Those two seemed engrossed in their own conversation, and you two were busy doing something boring, so I decided to come over and chat with Lily, my friend." He looked over at Lily. "That's right, isn't it? We're friends now?"

Lily sighed. "Yes, we are. Finally decided to make an official truce."

"Right." Mary said, smiling and crossing her arms. "Good. I was sick of your fights, anyways."

"Nope, no more fights!" James said. "Lily has even told me I'm right one time!"

Mary gasped theatrically. "Lily, is this true?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, it came out by accident, I'm sorry. Now would you two leave me alone? I really do have homework to work on. Go...go snog or something, please."

"Don't mind if we do." Mary said, giggling, and she kissed James for a long moment. Lily watched them, wishing that the sight didn't make her body ache with distaste. When they broke away, Mary waved and pulled James over to another armchair, where they sat whispering.

Lily returned to her essay, only to be interrupted again when Peter cleared his throat. "Yes, Peter?" she said.

Peter sat down. "I- I just wanted to talk."

"Oh." Lily rubbed her forehead. "Look, I should've mentioned this earlier, but I kind of wanted to take this slowly-"

"Yeah, I just wanted a conversation." said Peter. "But, I can...go if you want."

Lily suddenly felt guilty. "Sorry." she said. "This whole tattoo thing is kind of weird, isn't it?"

Peter laughed slightly. "Yeah."

Lily drummed her fingers on the table, struggling to think of something to talk about. "Uh...how was your day?"

"Good." said Peter. "And yours?"

"Good." Lily said. There was a painful silence. "Um...did you figure out the Transfiguration assignment?"

"Yeah, Mary showed me how." said Peter. "Did you? Cuz, uh, I could try and explain it to you, if you want..."

Lily thought she had a pretty good idea, but she would rather he explain it to her again than have to find another conversation topic. "Uh, yeah, I'm not sure, why don't you do that?" she said.

Peter scooted her chair closer to hers so they could both look at his parchment. "All right, so, uh, well, all right, what are you confused about?"

"Um..." Lily glanced down at the parchment. "Why don't you start from the top?"

At some point in Peter's ensuing lengthy explanation, Lily glanced up at where Mary and James were sitting. To her surprise, they were no longer kissing, instead watching her and Peter.

They were still so weirdly invested in her and Peter's relationship. Lily made a face at them and returned to listening to Peter.

* * *

It occurred to Lily early the next day that, with patrol tonight, it might be a good idea to figure out what they were going to do about Remus and Sirius, so she could get this over with as quickly as possibly. Sirius had always seemed so confident, Lily couldn't imagine it taking long to convince him to ask out Remus, but then again, Remus had never really been involved in romance. She'd always assumed it was because of his secret.

She still felt a little guilty for knowing, or, really, for seeking out what Remus's issue was. After Severus was attacked, he had made a few pointed comments that got Lily curious (nosy), and she'd done a bit of research and observation until eventually the Marauders had figured out and James and Sirius had taken her aside for a private word. Lily had never seen them both so menacing. She hadn't told Mary or Alice, had only discussed it with Severus (before their friendship fell apart), but she did try to do what she could around the full moons, whether that meant petitioning to get their patrols rescheduled or just being a bit more supportive than usual.

And that talk had been surprisingly loyal of James, now that Lily thought about it. She knew how loyal Sirius was for all of his womanizing and insanity, but James putting forth such a big effort for Remus had honestly never made sense to her for a while, as she'd thought he was too immature and self-centered for that. This year, however, she was starting to wonder if maybe wasn't the true James after all.

Lily shook her head, trying to clear the thoughts from her mind. The last thing she needed right now was to notice more good things about James to focus on more important things, like how they were going to set up Remus and Sirius. Then they would have no reason to interact, and she could move on.

In Charms class that day, she scribbled out a note asking James to meet her in an empty classroom on the fifth floor during their next free period, and discreetly dropped it onto his desk as she, Mary, and Alice made their way out. James was busy laughing at something with the other Marauders, but he made eye contact with her and nodded.

* * *

Lily had begun to wonder just how late he would be when he hurried in, panting.

"Sorry." James said, placing his things on the teacher's desk. "Had to come up with a good excuse. We probably don't have long."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Like you aren't a good liar."

James grinned. "Well, maybe. But I'm telling the truth about us not having much time. Don't want anyone to get suspicious. So, you want to talk about Remus and Sirius?"

"Yeah." said Lily, sitting on one of the desks. "I was just thinking, I've got Prefect duty tonight with Remus, and it would be a perfect opportunity for us to try and start something if we can think of a plan. It'll just be Remus and I alone for a while, I'm sure there's plenty of ideas we can come up with."

"Oh, Miss Evans, are you advocating for rule-breaking?" James asked, climbing on top of the desk across from her. "It sounds like you're encouraging me and Pads to be out after hours-"

Lily colored. "Not necessarily. I mean, if we do want to spring something on them, that would certainly be a good opportunity."

"And you claim to be a Prefect." said James. "But I do have one thing to say about whatever we decide to do. It's got to be subtle. Frank and Alice, no offense, were a little oblivious. Remus and Sirius are smarter than that, they'll figure it out if we do something too big, and then they'll just get weird around each other. So whatever we do, they can't notice."

"Hmm..." Lily chewed on her lip. "Well, all right, let's decide what we should do first, and then we can work out how to make it subtle. So you're saying that they both know that they like each other, and they just aren't going to do anything about it?"

"Yep." said James, resting his elbows on his knees. "Which would be a perfectly valid choice if they weren't hurting themselves and each other over it."

"Well, all right, do you think they know how the other feels?" Lily asked. "Even an inkling?"

James shrugged. "I'm not sure. Why?"

"I don't know, there's gotta be a lot of...tension between them." said Lily. "Unspoken feelings tend to carry a lot of weight, you know? I'm sure they're both a little more aware than they let on."

James studied her, furrowing his brow. "I mean, maybe. But they're not going to do anything about it, are they?"

"Exactly." said Lily, looking away. "What we have to do is to ratchet up that tension until they've got no choice but to do something about it. Get them in close physical proximity, make comments- subtle comments- about it, put the thought in their head that there is something there, so every time they're around each other they can't stop thinking about it, and eventually they'll have to address it."

"I don't know." said James. "Couldn't that ruin their friendship?"

"Then we own up and get them to talk it out, like Frank and Alice." said Lily.

James nodded. "Not a bad plan, I'm surprised at you."

Lily grinned. "I aim to please."

"What about specifics?" asked James. "So, we make a lot of comments, and...what else?"

Lily shrugged. "I guess that's more standard matchmaking stuff. Just try to get them touching a lot, although obviously we can't do anything like lock them in a closet, that'd tip them off that something's up."

James chuckled. "Maybe a little. And oh, wait." He snapped his fingers, leaning forward. "I've actually got a great idea for this. So, Remus's birthday is next week, so we're throwing him a surprise party this Friday- don't tell him, by the way- and it would be perfect if maybe during a party game, Sirius and Remus just so happened to end up kissing."

Lily smiled back, buoyed by his excitement. "What, like Spin the Bottle? That could work- maybe give it a little nudge or something-"

"Yeah, yeah." said James, nodding, and then he pulled away. "I think we've got a good plan. Good work." He offered his hand again, and Lily shook it.

"Always a pleasure." she said, pulling away when she felt like she was enjoying touching him a little too much. She wished James hadn't become friendly, that made this so much harder. If only they hadn't made that truce. She couldn't exactly break it without him knowing what was going on, and she didn't really want to go back to arguing anyways.

James, oblivious, saluted and walked out, leaving Lily alone with her worries.

* * *

Patrol that night was slow, devoid of any troublemakers or snogging couples. Lily and Remus strolled through the halls, occasionally using their wands to light up dark corners or to check behind tapestries. Lily glanced over at Remus, trying to figure out how to approach the topic.

She decided to go for something safer instead. "So, your birthday is next week."

"Mmhmm." said Remus, shining his wand into an alcove.

"Anything in particular you want?"

Remus shrugged. "You don't have to get me anything. It's not like we have another Hogsmeade visit coming up before then. Besides, James is throwing me a surprise party this Friday, so that's more than enough."

Lily blinked. "What- what are you talking about?"

Remus looked over at her, grinning. "James isn't nearly as subtle as he thinks he is. He tries this every year with at least one of us. Since Peter and Sirius both had their birthdays months ago, and neither of them had surprise parties, I'm pretty sure it's my turn."

"Oh." Lily said. "Yeah, he may have mentioned something about that, but don't tell him I told you or he'll probably be upset."

"Wouldn't dream of it." said Remus. "You two seem friendly lately."

Lily fidgeted with her robes. "Yeah, we...decided to call a truce, actually. If I'm being honest, he's not as bad of a guy as I thought he was, he's kind of fun to talk to." She smiled. "Sorry for not figuring this out last year, I could've saved you a lot of trouble."

"You would've dated him if you'd known?"

Lily was glad the darkness hid her blush. "Uh, no, that's not what I meant. No, I just meant, I might not have tried to push him down the stairs that one time. Or done all the other things that he moaned to you about."

Remus snorted. "Sirius and I turned it into a betting game, actually. Started out as 'Will James mention Lily today?' And then, because that one got too easy, turned into different words or phrases that he almost always mentioned. 'What have I ever done to her?' was my best one. I think Sirius got the most points for James groaning and slamming his head onto the table."

"What did you bet?" Lily asked. "Some sort of favors?" She emphasized the word, trying to make it vaguely seductive.

Remus squinted at her. "What do you mean by that?"

Apparently that hadn't been vague enough. "Oh, I just meant, like, homework and stuff." Lily tried to adopt her most innocent expression. "Loser has to write the other's Potions essay, that sort of thing."

Remus smiled. "No, no, it was just bragging rights. I'm surprised James never figured it out, we got pretty excited whenever one of us won."

"You and Sirius are close." Lily observed.

"Yeah, I guess." said Remus. "Is that...unusual?"

Lily shrugged. "No, I guess I just never really realized. You two are so different, it doesn't seem like you should get along so well, but you're always together." She fixed Remus with a stare. "Or talking about the other, now that I think about it."

Remus avoided her gaze, looking down the hallway. "We're not as different as you might think, that's all."

"Hmm." said Lily. She elbowed Remus. "So you're secretly a total arse who never takes anything seriously?"

Remus actually looked offended by that, and Lily had to hide her grin. "He's not as bad as he acts. Yeah, he doesn't have the greatest taste in women, but he takes more things seriously than he lets on. He's been through some things, it's a miracle he laughs as much as he does."

"I guess I'll have to take your word for it." said Lily.

Remus looked over at her. "Why the curiosity, anyways?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know, just been wondering lately. Probably because I've been getting to know James and Peter better, but I still don't know a lot about Sirius."

"Yeah, he's...Sirius." said Remus, and for a moment, they fell silent.

"So, back to your birthday." said Lily. "I've got another question for you."

"Yeah?"

"Are you going to get your tattoo?" Remus tensed, so Lily backtracked. "I mean, of course it's not any of my business, I was just curious. We seem to have a lot of tattoo-related drama lately, I could use a warning if we're about to have more."

Remus snorted. "I don't think that would be a problem with me even if I got one."

"What makes you say that?" Lily asked.

Remus shook his head. "It's nothing. Honestly, I don't think they'd give me one if I asked."

Lily put a hand on his shoulder. "Remus-"

He shook her off. "It's fine, don't worry about it. I'm fine as I am. I mean, dating isn't the most important thing in the world. Besides, it would probably be a bad idea."

Lily chewed her lip, wishing there was something she could say- not to change his mind, but at least to get some of that weariness out of his voice. "It's your choice." she finally said. "Completely your choice."

"Yeah, I guess that's the beauty of these tattoos." Remus said. "You still have a choice whether you want to get them or not. Because once you have them, it's kind of hard to say no to your soulmate isn't it? Whoever they might be."

Lily snorted. "You're right about that. You're about the only one who accepted that I just wasn't ready to be open about who my soulmate was."

Remus shrugged. "I just think maybe they built up this soulmate concept a bit too much. Is it really likely that there's only one person you could possibly be happy with for the rest of your life? And if that's true, isn't that sort of depressing? What if things don't work out, or they die?"

"I just wonder how they figure these things out, anyways." Lily said. "I mean, my supposed soulmate and I really don't have much in common."

Remus nodded. "Yeah, yeah, it seems like there could be a lot of room for error, and then, what, you spend the rest of your life with someone assigned to you as an error?"

"Do you think you'll ever date?" Lily asked suddenly. "Not just a soulmate thing, but in general..."

"I..." Remus sighed. "Look, Lily, you know my situation. I'm not going to force anyone else to deal with that. It's not like I can have kids, either."

"Your friends are willing to help with it." Lily reminded him.

Remus rubbed his forehead. "Yeah, they are amazing people, but not everyone else is. I can't just go around telling people and hope they accept me for it."

"You could always date one of them." said Lily, doing her best to make it sound like a joke.

Remus snorted. "No thank you. James has Mary, Peter has you, and Sirius...just no."

"Why not?" asked Lily, grinning. "He's attractive, Remus. I bet he'd make you feel real good."

As they passed by another torch, Lily was amused to see that Remus looked a little red. "I...no, I'm sorry. Are you serious about this?"

"No, of course not." said Lily. "Just a joke." But hopefully one that would plant the idea in his head.

* * *

She didn't get much chance to talk to either Remus or Sirius the next day, although, with the amount of time James spent around them, she trusted that he was doing what he could. Lily didn't see much of the Marauders at all until lunchtime.

"Joining us again?" Mary asked as the boys sat down. She kissed James on the cheek before returning to her lunch. "I'm going to start getting spoiled if you spend so much time with me."

James threw an arm around her. "How could I resist such a delicious dish?"

"You two are gross." Alice said, wrinkling her nose.

Lily gestured towards Alice. "See! Even Alice agrees! And she and Frank are the grossest couple of them all!"

"Hey." Alice said. "We don't kiss nearly as much as those two do."

Mary laughed. "Then you're clearly doing things wrong!" She pulled James in by his neck and kissed him for a long moment.

"Hi, Lily." said Peter, and Lily was so grateful to have the distraction from what was going on across from her that she was actually relieved to talk to him.

"Um..."

Lily looked back up, followed by the rest of the group. Remus and Sirius were still standing there, staring at the single, tiny spot open next to Alice.

Remus cleared his throat. "I've got homework to do, I'll just go eat somewhere-"

Sirius grabbed him before he could walk off, throwing an arm around his shoulder. "No, of course not! Come on, I'll eat with you, Moony."

"Why don't you two just share?" asked James innocently. Lily looked at him, and his grin widened. Lily hid her smile behind her napkin.

"Uh-" began Remus.

"Yeah, that'll work!" Sirius plopped down and tugged Remus on top of him.

"Sirius, I'm taller than you are-"

"So? Even short people want to be the big spoon sometimes." Sirius pulled Remus against him.

Remus was half-laughing, half-exasperated as he struggled to get away. "You can't even see the table-"

"So you'll just have to feed me!" Sirius winced. "Merlin, Moony, you've got bony hips."

"No, no, this is ridiculous." Remus turned to Alice. "Would you mind scooting over a little?"

"Not at all." said Alice. She scooted closer to Lily, sending Lily into Peter but giving Remus enough room to sit down next to Sirius. Lily noticed, however, that they were still practically in each other's laps, and they couldn't move or get any food without brushing up against each other.

As conversation continued, she sent an approving smile to James. He smirked in return, before covering it up to listen to something that Sirius was saying.


	9. Chapter 9

Remus's birthday party that Friday was normal for any Marauder party- crowded, loud, full of people no one knew and drinks of dubious origin. Lily spent most of her time avoiding Ludo and Marlene, who had come with Frank. This was a bit difficult, as she spent the rest of her time with Alice, Mary, and Frank. Peter stopped by a lot, as did Remus (when he wasn't being dragged around by Sirius and dared to do 'manly things' now that he was a man), but James only appeared every once in awhile.

"You know how he is at parties." Mary said (well, yelled over the din). "He's always got to be the host."

"He did a good job!" shouted Alice. "This is a good party!" Next to her, Frank nodded, although his pained expression told a different story.

"Prongs always throws good parties!" Peter said to Lily. "He's really good at getting the supplies! Sometimes I go with him!"

Lily nodded. "Uh huh!"

"Where does he get this all?" asked Mary, leaning forward so Peter could hear her. Peter tilted his ear closer, and Mary repeated her question. "He won't even tell me where everything comes from!"

Peter grinned and tapped his nose, leaning back. "Marauder secret!"

Mary laughed and shook her head, and then jumped when James appeared, throwing his arms around her and Frank. "You guys all need to stick around after this is over!" he shouted.

"What, to help with cleaning?" Mary asked.

James shook his head. "No, we've got a- Remus! Sirius! Wormtail, go get them!"

Peter chugged the rest of his drink and tossed his empty cup at Sirius's shoulder, a short distance away. Remus and Sirius turned around, and James beckoned them over.

"All right, you all need to stay once this is over." he said, lowering his voice to just above normal speaking volume. "I've got a game I want to play with the eight of us."

Sirius clapped Remus on the back, nearly knocking him over. "Great! Remus needs to have a test of strength, now that he's a man!"

"Sirius, my birthday isn't until next week." said Remus.

Sirius ignored him. "Now you're the only one left, Prongs! Moony's a man, I'm a man, Wormy's a man, even these three girls and Frank are men, it's just you!"

James responded with a rude hand gesture that left Sirius cackling. Mary wrapped an arm around him. "Don't worry, honey, you've only got a few weeks."

"Yeah, and I expect the best surprise party when it's my turn!"

Mary grinned, kissing his ear. "Oh, I can give you a surprise." she said in a low voice.

"Is that even legal?" Lily asked. "He's so young!"

James gave her a dirty look while Sirius laughed again, leaning into Remus. "Hey, good one, Evans!" he shouted. "I didn't know you could be funny!"

It was Lily's turn to glare while James laughed.

"Be nice!" shouted Mary.

"Oh, always." James said. "Gotta go, back in a second!" He disappeared into the crowd.

"So, what do you want to make Remus do next?" Sirius shouted, tugging Remus towards him. "Now that he's of age, anything goes!"

"Sirius, you sound like you're trying to pimp me out." said Remus, making Alice and Mary giggle.

"Oh, baby, I will be the best pimp you ever had!" Sirius shouted. "Come on, who wants him? Alice and Frank, want to spice things up? Mary, need a break from your horrible git of a boyfriend? Pete, I've seen the way you look at him. Lily?"

"No, no, no, keep him." said Lily, laughing. "He's yours."

Sirius's grin widened. "Very well then."

"Oh, Merlin, Lily, what have you done?" asked Remus.

Sirius threw both arms around his friend. "I'm going to ravish you, Moony! Let me take your manhood!"

Remus shoved him off, cheeks reddening. "How much have you had to drink, Pads?"

"Just enough. I-" Sirius looked at something behind the rest of the group, and his smile disappeared. "Moony, let's go." he said, tugging Remus away.

Lily turned, and immediately realized why. Marlene and Ludo were standing there, hand-in-hand. She wondered if there was a way she could leave politely, too.

"Marlene, you know I love you, but you've gotta stop doing that to him." Mary shouted. "He might talk to you on your own, but when you're with Ludo, it just seems like you're rubbing it in his face."

Marlene frowned. "I just want to apologize!"

Ludo nodded, although Lily had to wonder how sincere he was. "Frank, you ready to go?" he asked.

Frank shrugged. "Think I might stay a little longer."

Alice looked up at him, putting her arm around his waist. "You can leave if you want, Frank, I know these aren't your favorite things."

Frank shook his head. "No, I'm fine. Although it might be nice to go somewhere a little quieter."

"Yeah, sure." said Alice.

Lily grinned. "Ooh, make sure to bring the protective Potions"

"Lily!" Alice shouted while the rest of the group laughed.

"Just stop having sex in time for James's game!" shouted Peter.

Mary cackled loudly. Lily eyed her, wondering if Sirius wasn't the only drunk one tonight.

"Game?" asked Marlene.

The group traded glances. "Oh, James just wanted some people to stay back for a game afterwards." said Mary.

"It's probably going to be something silly, though." Alice said. "You know how party games are. I guess he wanted a smaller group for it."

"Oh." Marlene looked like she had just eaten a particularly unpleasant Bertie Bott's Bean. "And that excludes people who recently dumped his best friend, I guess!"

"It was a little harsh, Marl..." said Mary.

Marlene shook her head. "What was I supposed to do? Pretend I didn't know who my soulmate was until we broke up, after we'd gotten even more attached? We were a casual thing, it was better to break things off then than when either of us had gotten any deeper! The truth was going to come out eventually!" She sighed. "And I'm trying to apologize and explain, but he just won't listen!"

Lily fidgeted, staring down at her drink. Alice reached across Frank to lay a hand on Marlene's shoulder. "It's been a week, Marlene. The whole thing was sudden. Just give him time. You left him for someone he hates without any warning, his ego's been hurt."

"I guess you're right." said Marlene.

Ludo squeezed Marlene's hand. "Come on, let's go." They walked off into the crowd, and Lily let out a breath.

"Ludo still seems upset." said Mary.

Lily snorted. "He has nothing to be upset about. Really, why couldn't he just have waited until after Sirius and Marlene broke up to come forward with his tattoo? He didn't even know if it was requited."

"I don't know, she's liked him for a while." said Mary. "She never should've dated Sirius in the first place. At least they figured out that it was a mistake early on."

"Right." Lily said, knuckles going white around her cup.

Alice, who had been whispering to Frank during their conversation, turned back to them. "Frank and I are going to go find some place quiet to sit." she shouted. "See you guys later!"

Lily waved to them, and then turned back to Mary and Peter. She was feeling an urge to get out of this claustrophobic crowd, too. "Anyone want any drinks? I'm going to get some."

Mary and Peter both shook their heads, and Lily left them, weaving her way through the crowd. And of course, because luck was not with her tonight, she ran straight into Ludo and Marlene again.

Lily stepped back. "I- I thought you guys had left."

"We're on our way." Ludo said. "Scuse me." He walked off through the crowd.

Marlene sighed. "What even happened between you two? He won't talk about it."

"Nothing." Lily said. "I should probably go."

"Wait!" Marlene called, but Lily kept walking.

* * *

Not too long after that, McGonagall arrived to shut down the party (at which point the beverages the Marauders had managed to procure all mysteriously disappeared). It never failed to amaze Lily how quickly parties emptied out once McGonagall showed up- in mere minutes, the Common Room was deserted, save for the sixth-year Gryffindors and Frank.

Lily and Mary immediately claimed one of the couches, stretching out on it and enjoying the silence. "We ought to clean some of this up." mumbled Lily.

Mary snorted as Frank and Alice squeezed into the armchair across from them. "We can get the house elves to do that."

"Yeah, but I feel bad." Lily murmured. She felt pleasantly loose and sleepy. She leaned against Mary. "You don't mind if I sleep right here, do you?"

"Honestly, I was about to suggest the same thing." Mary said, yawning. "Hey, lover, what's this game you wanted to play?"

The Marauders were over in one corner, working furiously at something. Lily leaned up slightly- the drinks container had somehow reappeared. "Well, that's impressive."

"Nothing to see here!" James called over his shoulder. "Especially not for Prefects!" He and Peter lifted the container, carrying it up towards the stairs.

"Remus is a Prefect." Lily observed.

Sirius threw an arm around Remus's shoulder. "Yeah, but he's one of us." He walked towards them a bit unsteadily, leaning heavily on Remus for support.

"Are you okay?" Remus asked quietly.

Sirius shrugged, grinning. "You know me, I can hold my alcohol."

"Clearly not." Mary said, making a face. "Ugh, you stink of it."

"Shut up." said Sirius. He took a running start and attempted to dive on the couch across from Mary and Lily, but tripped over a table and face planted into the cushions. "Ow." He rolled onto his back. "Please don't tell Prongs."

Mary laughed. "Oh, I just might have to."

"Pads, please stop trying to kill yourself." Remus muttered, sitting down.

Sirius grinned at him, sitting up. "Aww, Moony, were you worried about me?"

"Remus is a man now, he doesn't have time for your shenanigans." Lily said.

Sirius pouted, actually pouted. "I'm a man too."

Alice giggled, wrapping her arm around Frank.

"Sure you are." said Mary. "You're a man who can't even hold his liquor."

"Hey, I drank plenty!" Sirius said, stabbing a finger into the air.

Remus sighed. "I'll go get you some water, you clearly need it."

"No, Moony." Sirius pulled Remus back. "It's your birthday, you shouldn't have to do anything."

"I'll get it." said Lily, standing and crossing the Common Room to where the nonalcoholic drinks still lay. She picked up a cup that looked mostly untouched, sniffed it to make sure it was water and brought it back, nearly crashing into James and Peter along the way.

James held up a bottle, grinning. "You ready?"

"For what?" Peter asked.

James threw his arm around him. "Oh, Peter, my boy, you'll find out. This is the greatest game of them all."

Lily snorted. "I don't know about that."

"Hey, James!" called Mary, leaning over the side of the couch. "What's so important that we can't go to bed right away?"

"Spin the Bottle, that's what!" James said, and immediately, Frank and Remus groaned. "No, no, you're going to play it, and you're going to like it!" He sat next to Mary, placing the bottle on the table, and then snuggling up next to her. Lily handed Remus Sirius's water and then sat next to James, curling her feet underneath her to avoid touching him. "You all know the rules, it's the simplest game in the world!"

"Can I veto this?" Remus asked, raising a hand as Peter sat next to him. "It's my birthday, after all."

"Not your birthday yet, Moony." said James.

Sirius was practically laying on Remus's chest now, although, in his defense, he did look like he was about to fall asleep. "You gotta do it! You gotta prove your manhood."

"Shut up and drink your water." said Remus, staring down at him fondly.

Lily's eyes widened and she traded glances with James. When she looked back at Remus, however, he was watching her.

"Birthday boy starts!" said James.

Mary shook her head. "Shush, James, you'll wake me up."

James responded by shaking her shoulders vigorously, and she groaned, throwing a hand over her face.

"Why don't you start?" asked Remus. "Since you're the one who wanted to play the game."

"All right." James said, grinning. He reached across Mary, leaning down to give the bottle a spin. It whirled for a bit before landing to a stop on Frank and Alice's chair.

"Oh, no." Frank said.

Alice giggled. "It's certainly not me."

James stood. "Don't worry, Frank, I'll be gentle." he said, and leaned over Alice to give Frank a peck on the lips while Mary cheered.

Frank, looking amused, leaned forward and spun the bottle. It twisted right back to face him and Alice again.

"Aww, that's gotta be rigged." said Lily as Alice and Frank kissed with a bit more passion than necessary.

Alice just smiled as she whirled the bottle again. "Oh, Remus." she said. "Happy birthday?"

After she and Remus shared a chaste kiss, Remus spun the bottle again. This time, James put his feet casually on the table midspin, causing the bottle to jerk to a stop right back at Remus.

"What, does he kiss himself?" asked Mary.

James waggled his eyebrows. "I don't think it's pointing at him."

"Oh, good." said Sirius. "I was wondering when I was going to get picked." He leaned up and gave Remus a rather enthusiastic kiss for a few seconds, until Remus pulled abruptly back.

"Your breath is pure alcohol." Remus informed him, shifting a few inches away from him.

Sirius smiled down at the table. "And you love it. Would you spin for me?"

Remus reached over him, spinning the bottle. It didn't go too far- it landed on Lily.

"Oh my God." she said.

"Like you've never been curious." said Sirius.

Lily wrinkled her nose, standing. "No, I can honestly say I have not." She crossed her arms. "This is so weird with Remus right there, I hope you know. I feel like I'm kissing both of you."

"Go on, Lily!" called Mary. "I want to get picked next!"

"So you can kiss me?" Lily said, but she had just barely finished her sentence when Sirius was pulling her down. He missed her mouth completely, and when Lily finally managed to push him off, she had slobber all over her cheek. "Ugh!"

"Told you, Evans!" Sirius said.

Lily walked back to her seat, trying to wipe the spit off with one hand. "Ugh! You literally just drooled on my cheek!"

"Best kisser at Hogwarts!" said Sirius.

Lily wiped her hand on James, and he pulled away. "Why me?"

"Like you've never had Sirius's drool on you before." Lily said, before spinning the bottle again. James's foot jerked again as he examined the wetness on his shirt, and the bottle stopped at Peter.

"Aww." said Mary. "How cute." Lily wanted to glare at her.

"I'll come over there." said Peter. "Since, uh, since you just moved."

Lily nodded. "All right."

It was about what she expected. Peter's lips were nice, but he didn't really do much which them, and it didn't do very much for Lily. She pulled away, smiling at him as he returned to the couch.

"Wait, does this mean you've kissed all of the Marauders?" asked Sirius, grinning. "Since you and Moony had that incident last year-"

"Not all of them." said James.

Lily snorted, face flushing despite herself. "You wish. Besides, Black wasn't a kiss, that was more of a lick."

Sirius laughed. "That's how dogs kiss!"

"I'm sorry to inform you, mate," James said, leaning forward to give Sirius a very concerned look, "but you are not a dog."

"I'm a dog in bed." Sirius said, smirking.

Lily covered her eyes with one hand as James laughed. "Oh my God."

"Spin, Peter!" said Mary. "I wanna get kissed!"

Surprisingly, Peter did end up getting Mary, and she put extra effort into it as her first kiss of the night. Mary spun and got Remus, and after a quick kiss, he got Alice again. Alice and James exchanged a kiss that left Frank glowering, and then James got Sirius, whereupon Frank and everyone else promptly forgot about the earlier parts of the game, because James and Sirius really went at it, making lots of moaning noises and using visible amounts of tongue. Lily wanted to gag, and when Sirius ended up with Frank, Frank looked like he was about to flee the Common Room.

"Bet you're glad you stayed with us tonight, Frank!" Mary said, grinning.

Frank's eyes were wide with fear as Sirius approached. "I'm never playing this game again." he said, right before Sirius leaned down and gave him a peck on the forehead.

Sirius chuckled as he returned to his couch. "I like to change it up." He slumped back next to Remus.

And then the bottle was pointed towards Lily. She grinned, kissing Frank, and gave it a whirled. Remus stretched out a foot, shifting to get more comfortable, and hit the table. The bottle jerked to a stop- right where James and Mary were sitting.

"Four for four?" asked Remus.

Lily's heart pounded. She glanced over at James nervously. "No, I think it landed on Mary." she said.

Alice nodded. "Looks that way from over here."

"I hope it did." said Mary. "I've only got one turn so far in this game."

"What, you don't want to complete your streak?" James asked, grinning.

Lily shoved Mary into him, ignoring her protest. "Go snog your girlfriend, like you're always doing."

"No, I think you're supposed to snog his girlfriend, Evans." Sirius said.

"Fine." Lily leaned over towards Mary, but that was putting her too close to James for comfort- she could smell him, the scent of his sweat and deodorant and the alcohol he'd drank, and he was watching her too intently to be sitting this close. Lily looked away, trying to shut him out, and kissed Mary. She really had to get over him, but it was so hard when they were trying to be friends and working together on Remus and Sirius.

Lily pulled away and stood. "All right, I think I'm done for the night. Mary is the best kisser here, I can't possibly top that."

"Aww, it's mutual." said Mary.

"I think I'll go to bed, too." said Alice. "Frank has gotta get back to Hufflepuff before it gets too late." She turned up to him. "Want me to walk you out?"

Frank nodded, and the pair stood, Alice leading Frank by the hand to the portrait hole.

Lily snorted. "They won't be up for a while. Mary? You coming?"

"I guess so." Mary said, disentangling herself from James. "Good night, boys!"

They exchanged good nights and then Lily and Mary climbed the stairs up to their dorm. Both girls changed into their nightclothes in silence. Lily had no idea what to say to Mary. Her heart was still racing with panic, the moment where the bottle had almost stopped on James replaying again and again in her mind.

Lily wondered if it really would be better to come clean about the tattoo now. She could handle it better than Ludo did, she could just tell Mary and not James, and let Mary decide what would happen next. Except the tattoo wasn't Lily's fault, her growing feelings for James were, and Lily wanted to get rid of those before she brought anything up to Mary.

"You seem lost in thought." commented Mary after a moment.

Lily laughed nervously. "Yeah, sorry. I...you know, it's the silliest thing, but I think I left my sweater downstairs."

Mary shrugged, climbing into bed. "Just get it in the morning."

"I don't want anything to happen to it." Lily said. "I'll be back up in a second." She hurried out the door, greeting Alice on her way in, and slowed to a walk as she descended the stairs.

She just needed to sit for a while down there, and clear her head, while Mary wasn't in the room. She just needed-

"-sure you've noticed them too."

"Evans and Prongs? Nah."

Lily stopped, heart pounding in her chest. Remus and Sirius were still in the common room, sitting on a couch together with their back to her. She quickly retreated back up the stairs until she couldn't see them and sat down to listen. Had they figured her out? How could they know?

"Prongs is always messing with us about it, he doesn't mean anything by it." Sirius continued. He sounded remarkably more sober, if tired. "Just a joke, that's all."

"Yeah, but I think he got Lily in on it." Remus said. "She's been making odd comments all week. And when Prongs tried to get us to share a seat , they were glancing at each other all throughout lunch."

Lily nearly sighed with relief. In a way, it was almost good that they'd figured their plans out so quickly- she and James could give up, and then they'd have no reason to talk, and then everything would be fine. Well, she'd still have to hope he didn't get his tattoo, and she still had to get over him, but other than that...

Remus was still talking. "And Spin the Bottle. You know how much he likes to rig that."

Sirius laughed. "So you think, what, they're trying to set us up?"

"No." Remus said after a moment. "Why would they do that?"

"Aww, come on, Moony, you know you're in love with me." said Sirius, but there was something a bit nervous in his tone.

Remus gave a high-pitched laugh. "No, I think they're just messing with us. They've been spending a lot of time together lately, maybe she thinks it's funny, too."

"Doesn't sound like Evans."

"Doesn't seem like her to be working with Prongs in the first place." said Remus. "Maybe's she's just really pissed at you."

"Aww, why?"

"Does she need a reason?"

"Moony."

Lily twisted her fingers together, wondering if she should be listening to this. But if she didn't come back up with her sweater, Mary would wonder.

"So, if they are messing with us, what are we supposed to do about it?" asked Sirius. "We could try to turn James's hair purple again, but he nearly killed us last time, and I'm not sure we could get to Evans without getting in trouble with her mummy McGonagall-"

"No, no, I've got a better idea." said Remus. "I think we should mess with them the same way they're messing with us. If they make us kiss again, we find a way to do it back. Sure, there's Mary and Peter, but that's the point, isn't it? They're not interested in each other, and we're obviously not interested in each other, either. So we give them a taste of their own medicine to show them how uncomfortable it is and maybe they'll back off."

There was a silence, and then Sirius, clearly grinning, said, "Moony, that's brilliant." The couch squeaked as he shifted. "So, what do you want to do? I've got a some ideas."

"Let's see if they keep this up, first." said Remus. "And then we can try a few things."

Lily didn't stick around to hear the rest of their conversation- she hurried back up the stairs, trying not to trip. Once outside the door, she took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself down so Mary and Alice wouldn't notice anything was wrong.

She pushed open the door and hurried to her bed. "Good night!" she called, closing the curtains around her.

The other girls just mumbled a response.


	10. Chapter 10

Lily didn't bother with passing notes the next day. James had a Quidditch practice that evening and he liked to get there early, so Lily laid in wait for him outside the Gryffindor portrait. As soon as James left, she grabbed him, dragging him down the hall.

"Holy Hippogriffs, Lily, what are you doing?" he said.

"We need to talk, right away." said Lily.

"We can talk later-" James began.

Lily shook her head. "No, no, it's important." She pushed a portrait open to the darkened passage beyond and pulled him in. "We can't let anyone overhear, either."

"What?" James said, panting, and only when his breath hit her ear did Lily realize how close they were. "What's going on?"

Lily edged down the passage, away from him. "Your friends figured us out."

"Already?"

"I don't know how either." whispered Lily. "I think they must've seen us looking at each other or something. But we've got to stop. They've apparently decided that we're messing with them, and whatever we do to them, they're going to try and do back to us. Remus wanted to try and make us kiss!"

"No, no, this actually isn't so bad." said James.

"What?!"

"Just hear me out, all right?" James said. "All right, so what you're saying is that the two of them, whenever we try to matchmake them, are going to spend more time together to work out ways to get revenge on us?"

Lily licked her lips. "I mean, when you put it that way..."

"Exactly!" said James. "This is perfect! We don't have to work out many ways to keep them in close proximity, they'll be doing that themselves as long as we keep the game going! And it's- it's not like there's anything between us, so it won't matter what they do to us, we'll just have to put up with a little embarrassment for a few weeks."

"What about Mary?" Lily whispered. "Won't she get upset?"

"Nah." said James. "I think she'll understand that they're just playing pranks on us."

Lily squeezed her eyes shut. Spending time with James was bad enough, but the type of pranks that Remus and Sirius wanted to play on them-

"Look, I know this- this friendship is still pretty new." whispered James "But I think this could work. And I know how you feel about me, you made that very clear last year, so there shouldn't be any weirdness, right?"

And there it was. She had no good way to refuse. "Fine." she said. "But if it gets weird, I'm backing out."

"Of course." said James. "See you around, Lily."

After he left, Lily stayed in the passage for a few more minutes, taking deep breaths.

* * *

So they continued their game- Lily kept making comments, and she assumed James did the same as well. They also tried to get the pair to sit close to each other whenever possible. Lily wasn't sure, at first, whether or not to be more obvious so that Remus and Sirius would plot revenge, or stay subtle so that neither of them would realize that James and Lily were planning to use the situation to their own advantage. She settled for the latter. She didn't want them to retaliate that badly.

It was hard enough just to be around James. Even when she managed to lose herself in the conversation and enjoy his presence, she always felt guilty afterwards because she couldn't help but wonder if she was enjoying it a little too much. Sure, it was good to be friends with him, and good to do the work they were doing, but she was worried that he might figure her out, or that she or Mary might end up hurt if Remus and Sirius went too far. She was still doing her best to get over him, but it was difficult when they spent so much time together, and Remus and Sirius weren't helping any.

Their retaliation started subtly. Suddenly, whenever Remus and Lily had a conversation, Remus would make little comments about how everyone thought James was so attractive, how Remus was his friend but he did have nice eyes, how he was a pretty good boyfriend to Mary, how he must be a good kisser since he'd had all those girlfriends-

At that last one, Lily nearly set the teacup she was supposed to be Transfiguring on fire. "Is this about Spin the Bottle?"

"What do you mean?" Remus asked innocently, practicing the right way to wave his wand.

Lily pursed her lips. "The four for four comment, what else would I mean? Although I don't know why you would possibly care-"

"I don't." said Remus, waving his wand and reciting the enchantment. His teacup remained unchanged. "It was just something I was curious about, that's all."

"You know, Black probably is a good kisser too, now that I think about it." said Lily. "When he's sober, anyways. He's had more girlfriends than James, hasn't he?" Lily smirked to see that Remus's cheeks were tinged with red. "He gave you an actual kiss at your birthday party, how was that?"

"He was drunk." said Remus, and his next attempt at the spell was much sloppier than his first. "I- I couldn't really tell."

"Curious?" Lily muttered.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing." Lily rested her head in one hand, trying to hide her smile.

And then other, stranger things began happening. Lily became clumsier than usual, and almost always around James. Normally, she wouldn't really have noticed, except it got a bit excessive- she had three particularly spectacular falls in two days, and, somehow, two of those falls ended with her crashing into James.

The third big fall landed her right in his arms.

"All right, Lily?" he asked, setting her back on her feet.

Lily backed away, eyes narrowing. "Yeah, fine, for the third time this week. I just seem to be extra klutzy lately." She wanted to glare at the two idiots standing on either side of James, but no doubt they would have perfected their poker faces from long years of being with the Marauders. Anyways, she didn't want them to know that she knew that they knew about her and James's plan.

"Lucky I keep being around, then." James said without dropping his grin. "Hey, so, I've got a Potions question actually, and I figure since you're Sluggy's favorite you'd probably be able to best help me. Wanna meet during a free period? In that empty classrooms?"

"Yeah, sure, I guess." said Lily. "I've got some History of Magic to do, so it can't be long, but..."

"Great." James said, nodding, and the Marauders headed into lunch.

Alice frowned. "Are you okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've been falling a lot lately." she said. "You don't think it's the Slytherins trying to jinx you again, do you?"

Mary immediately tensed, glancing around. "Oh, Merlin, I hope they aren't coming after us again. I don't care what the rules are, I will actually hurt one of them this time-"

"No, no, I don't think so." said Lily. "I- I'm not sure. Honestly, I think it might be James trying to pull something. We've been getting along too well lately."

Mary snorted. "Wonderful. I figured it was too good to be true."

"You don't have to get involved." Lily said quickly. "I can just talk to him about it later. This is between us, don't worry."

Mary nodded, but Alice pulled Lily back for a second as they walked into the Great Hall. "You sure you're all right? You've been a little distracted lately."

Lily bit her lip. "I...sorry. I guess I've been a bit busy. With dealing with Peter, and all."

Alice smiled. "Oh, I understand that might be a bit overwhelming. If you need to talk, though, you know we care about you."

"Thank you." Lily said, nodding. "Let's go, Mary must be waiting."

* * *

She met James in the same abandoned classroom they'd used before. James was waiting for her this time, sitting on the front desk.

"Do you ever feel a bit weird using these abandoned classrooms?" he asked by way of greeting. "Just think, there are probably professors who come in here to shag for a thrill. Maybe even some ghosts, too."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "You're gross. As usual." She perched on one of the desks. "So, what are we going to do about them?"

James grinned. "What, you mean you aren't trying to fall into my arms?"

"No, I am not." said Lily, ducking her head. "And also, if these were any other circumstances, I'd fully believe that Remus fancied you with the way he keeps talking about how attractive you are. It's actually disturbing. He tried to tell me how you were such a good kisser the other day, so I ended up asking him how Black was to shut him up."

James laughed. "Nice. Yeah, they've been making some similar comments about you, actually. Somehow, even though I've never heard about it before and they're shit at hiding things like this from me, they both fancied you once upon a time. Every time they start talking about it, though, I just figure out a way to get them to run into each other."

Lily snorted. "Thus, their countermove: tripping me into you every chance they get. So you can catch me like a knight in shining armor."

"Oh, really?" asked James, grinning. "Never been called that before. No, that's a lie-"

"Shut up before I throw something at you." said Lily. "What are we going to do about it?"

"Escalate, of course." said James. "I mean, that's the point of this whole thing, right? Then they'll have to figure out how they want to escalate back."

"How? We don't want to go too far..." Lily rubbed her forehead.

"I actually have an idea about that." said James. "What we could do is pretend to be secret admirers for them, from the other. Write fake love letters or something."

Lily tapped her chin. "Hmm. I mean, why?"

James shrugged. "The problem is that they can't spit it out, right? So if we give them a little push, let them know how the other feels..."

"Yeah, but...they know we're messing with them now." said Lily. "They might find it sort of suspicious that suddenly they're getting these notes. They'd probably ask the other about them, and the other could just deny it."

"I guess you're right."

"I mean, I think that sort of thing could work." said Lily. "We have to convince them that the other liked them somehow. It's not like we could just tell them, either, because now they won't believe it, but maybe if...if we were having a conversation about it and they happened to overhear it? We could acknowledge our plans and everything so it really seems like an accident-"

"Maybe." said James. "It would be tricky, but it could work. But I think that should be secondary for now, because it doesn't really keep the game going, does it? We have to try it on top of something else so they don't know it's our next move and think it's fake."

Lily nodded. "Right. So we're working on building them up to each other, and we're getting them to touch each other a lot, so now we just need to get them alone together. We could just lock them in a closet-"

James shook his head. "No, no, no, that's not nearly original enough. There's got to be some other way than that." He stared into space for a second. "Hmm...I could destroy one of their beds so they'd have to share, but the house elves would fix it pretty quickly, so maybe not." He snapped his fingers. "I got it! We make up some real-sounding disease, use hexes to give Remus and Sirius the symptoms, and report it to Pomfrey! She'll have to quarantine the two of them, and voila! They're alone."

Lily couldn't help but grin. "Really, James?"

"It's not a bad idea." said James. "Might cause a bit of a panic, and I'm sure we'll all be expelled when she discovers it's fake, but they'd be alone together for a while before then, and that's what matters, right?"

"Be serious." said Lily. "And no, don't you dare make that joke."

"Don't worry, I got tired of it around fourth year or so." James said, smiling at her. "Although it is how Sirius and I occupied an entire week of detention with Wood...huh. There's a thought."

"What?"

"Well, what if we could somehow get them in detention together?" James said. "Depending on what they do, it'd be just the two of them, alone, performing some long, monotonous task like organizing Slughorn's cabinets or something. That'd qualify as close proximity pretty well, wouldn't it?"

Lily narrowed her eyes. "I'm just struggling with the 'get them in trouble' part here."

"Oh, right, because you're little miss Prefect." said James. "You know, they have been tripping you on staircases all week."

Lily flipped her hair back."Doesn't mean I have to sink to their level. Look, how about this- you figure out how to land them in detention again, since you're the expert in that area, and I work out how we can get them to overhear us talking about them without it being suspicious. We meet again in a few days for more 'Potions homework', and work on whatever we have then. Sound good?"

James shrugged. "Fine with me. Although if I do happen to need your help with the detention plan-"

"I will." said Lily. "I just prefer to know as little about it as possible. That way, if it gets us all hauled before Professor McGonagall, I can blame you for everything."

James smiled. "Lily Evans, you're ruthless."

"Just trying to hold onto my reputation despite all these secret dealings." said Lily, leaning forward. "I mean, I do kind of want Head Girl next year, so-"

"Right." said James, sliding off the desk. "'Kind of' want. I'm sure they've picked you already."

Lily shrugged. "I don't know, Emmeline Vance would do pretty well-"

"Relax, Lily, you've got this." said James. He slung his bag over his shoulder. "And I suppose I'll do my best to not mess your chances up too much, because at least if you're running this school I can count on some nepotism."

Lily leaned back. "I don't know about that."

"Of course you do." said James, grinning. "Now, as much as I'd love to hear about all the favors you'd be willing to do for your best friend's boyfriend, I actually promised Mary I'd meet her in a few minutes, so I've got to go. See you around."

"I'll keep brainstorming!" Lily called as he left.

* * *

While Lily brainstormed, she tried to spend more time with Mary and Alice. The fact that Alice thought something was wrong worried her. Alice was pretty perceptive when she came to these things, but Lily didn't really know what she could say if Alice pressed her about it later. She was sure Mary thought something was up, too. Mary and Alice shared pretty much everything with each other.

And indeed, Mary sat down across from Lily on her bed one night. "So." she asked. "How are things with you and Peter?"

"Um, fine. " Lily said. She couldn't tell from Alice's back whether the other girl was eavesdropping or not. "We're just...going a bit slow, I guess. Why do you...why do you ask?"

Mary shrugged. "I don't know. Just wanted to make sure that was going okay, I guess. Peter said he couldn't really tell what was going on."

"Oh, he did, did he." Lily muttered. "When were you guys talking about that?"

"Just...the other day." said Mary. "He really is a nice guy. I mean, obviously I don't think anyone's good enough for either you or Alice, but he's a pretty good guy. I think you'd do well."

"It's still Lily's choice." said Alice, coming to sit down beside Mary. "She wanted to take it slow, and that's what she and Peter are doing."

"I know, I know." said Mary. "I just wanted to make sure everything was okay, that's all."

"Well, I'll talk to him, then." said Lily. "Don't worry about me, Mary, I'll be fine. You two worry about your own happy relationships with your wonderful boyfriends."

Alice smiled, but Mary just wrinkled her nose. "Yeah." she said, tracing a pattern on her blanket. "Will do."

Lily and Alice traded worried glances, but neither of them wanted to push the topic. Instead, Alice changed the subject, and they continued talking until bedtime.

* * *

"Well, it's done." said James, sitting down next to Mary as she, Lily, and Peter worked through the next Transfiguration assignment. He pressed a kiss to the side of Mary's head.

"What's done?" asked Mary, interlacing her fingers with James's.

"The Potions assignment." said James, nodding towards Lily. "I got it done."

Lily met his eyes, confused, and then realized. "Oh, oh yeah. Good job with that."

"Thanks." said James, smiling.

Mary slung an arm around him. "Awww, you figured it out."

"Yeah, I did." said James, still looking at Lily. "And did you figure out- that assignment you were working on?"

"I'm still thinking about it." said Lily, looking over to where Remus and Sirius usually sat with the other Marauders. Their table was conspicuously empty.

James nodded, and finally turned to Mary. "So what are you guys working on? More Transfiguration?"

"Mary wanted me to help her with it." said Peter. "She's been helping me, too."

James grinned. "Nice. You're finally beginning to discover Pete's charms, aren't you, Mary?"

Mary made a face. "What do you mean by that? Lily's his soulmate."

James's grin faded somewhat. "Just a joke, that's all. But thanks for helping Wormy out. He's great at Transfiguration, but McGonagall was worried about letting him in this year for some reason."

Lily glanced over at Peter- he hadn't said anything, but his cheeks were a little red. "Well, that's sort of a personal thing to tell someone else." she said, folding her arms.

"It doesn't matter." said Peter, smiling after a moment. "Prongs is right. Mary is helping me."

Now it was Mary's turn to look down at her paper. "Well, that's- that's good."

"Yeah, great." James said, clapping Mary on her shoulder. "I've got a girlfriend with a good heart."

Mary laughed, meeting his eyes, and Lily braced herself for more kissing, but surprisingly, it was over quickly. James smirked across the table. "And of course, these two are the cutest pair of soulmates we've ever had."

Lily and Peter were silent.

"Don't make them uncomfortable." Mary chided. "Let them figure it out."

"Sure." James said, leaning forward to kiss her. Mary acquiesced, and then he pulled away, standing up. "I've got to go."

"Aww, already?" Mary asked, reaching for him.

James shrugged, stepping back. "Got practice tonight, don't I? Got to get ready for that."

"Right." Mary turned back to her work.

James, sensing her tone, glanced over at Lily. "Don't worry, it'll pay off when we get the championship." he said. "We can talk after practice."

Mary didn't look up. "Okay. Bye."

Lily frowned. She'd thought they were doing better than before. Before James could fix anything, however, the portrait door opened and Remus and Sirius walked in, looking disheveled.

"You'll never believe what just happened." Sirius called, loud enough for most of the Common Room to turn and stare.

James hurried over to meet them. "What?"

"Padfoot and I just got detention." Remus said. "Right after you ran off. Scrubbing McGonagall's desks." He slumped down at the Marauder's usual table.

Peter stood, looking at Mary. "Sorry, but I'm going to go-" he gestured towards where the other three were talking.

"That's fine." said Mary. "Just- come back, all right? I still need your help!"

"I can try and help you." said Lily as Peter walked away.

Mary shrugged. "Nah, it's fine. No offense, I just like the way Peter explains things."

"Hmm." said Lily, returning to her work. After a moment, she asked, "Everything all right?"

"No, you don't need to go tell him off again." Mary said quietly. "I just...maybe we weren't meant to last more than a few weeks."

"Don't say that." said Lily. "You two are all over each other all the time, you like each other."

Mary shrugged. "Maybe. But also..." She paused, laying her quill down. "I think...would it be totally weird if..."

Lily watched her for a moment. "If what?"

Whatever Mary was going to say, she seemed to change her mind. "Nothing. Never mind. If I told James to go ahead and get his tattoo?"

Lily immediately tensed, although she did her best to keep a smile on her face. "I think...I think that's between you two. But...if you're a little worried about you two already, wouldn't it be best for him not to? If you guys break up, you can get it then."

"Yeah, I guess." Mary said, picking her quill up again. "I just think it might be easier to know, sometimes, you know? To just get it over with."

"That type of attitude didn't help Black." Lily said quietly, glancing over at where he was telling James the story of their run-in with McGonagall. James was doing an impressive job of pretending to be surprised.

Lily realized Remus was watching her watch James. She colored, looking back at Mary, who, thankfully, was still absorbed in her paper.

"Yeah, maybe." Mary said. "I don't know which would've been better...Marlene letting their relationship run its course first and then getting together with Ludo soon afterwards, or just breaking things off then before they got more attached." Mary tapped her quill against the tattoo. "Although I guess it might've been worse if Marlene had waited to say anything until she got her tattoo. What do you think?"

"I..." Lily met Mary's eyes. "Um...well, you're waiting to get your tattoo until after you and James break up, aren't you?"

Mary looked back down at her paper. "Of course, yeah, obviously. But Marlene already knew she wanted to be with Ludo. So why would she wait to be with him?"

That question, at least, was easier to answer, although Lily wasn't sure why Mary was asking it. "Well, if she was strongly interested in someone else, she should've broken it off before the tattoo debacle started."

Mary frowned. "What if she wasn't sure? I mean, everyone gets interested in other people every once in a while in a relationship."

"Um..." Lily played with her quill. "Well, it didn't seem like Marlene was just sort of interested in Ludo, did it? She told me she was pretty sure he was her soulmate, and Remus and James both thought she might've been using Black to make Ludo jealous."

"Oh, okay." Mary said, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. "I guess that's...wait, when did she talk to you about all this?"

Lily opened her mouth and closed it, not wanting to discuss that particular conversation. Finally, she shrugged. "I, uh, may have run into her at one point. And I may have made a comment about the way she dumped Black."

"Lily." said Mary, leaning across the table. "I was hoping you two would stop fighting!"

Lily shrugged. "Sorry, I just...it was right after they made that scene in the Great Hall, so I was still a little shocked."

"Right." Mary said, returning to her work, and Lily thought their discussion was over, until Mary asked, "So you think she was wrong? To leave Sirius when she figured out what was going on between her and Ludo?"

"That abruptly, yeah." said Lily. "I think some things are better staying secret."

"Even if they're going to come out eventually?" Mary asked.

Lily's throat closed up- but no, there was no way Mary could know. "Well, then, it's better to wait for that eventually, isn't it?" Lily asked. "Who knows what might've changed by then."

Mary nodded. "Right. Thanks, Lily."

"For what?"

Mary shrugged. "Just- interesting conversation, that's all." And that was the last thing Mary was willing to say in the topic.

* * *

Remus and Sirius's retribution for detention was as swift as it was horrible.

"Oh my God!" Lily said, covering her eyes. "Oh my God, I am so sorry, I did not know you would be in here, Remus just sent me up here to borrow a book-"

"Lily, relax." said James, but Lily kept her arm over her face until he sighed. "All right, I've got trousers on, you want to come get the book?"

"Yeah." Lily said, dropping her arm. Unfortunately for her, he was still shirtless, and she really did not need to see what years of playing Quidditch had done to his physique right now. "Would you put on a bloody shirt?"

James grinned a bit halfheartedly as he pulled on his shirt and buttoned it up. "What, you don't like what you see?" He flexed, and Lily flushed all over again.

"Not now." she said. "Please."

"All right, all right, just teasing." James said, raising his hands, and even though he had a shirt on, Lily still swallowed, unable to get the image of what he looked like underneath out of her mind. He'd at least been in his underwear when she walked in, thankfully, but what she'd seen of him was still far too much.

She closed her eyes, and when she reopened then, turned away from him to go search Remus's area for the book. "I'm going to kill them, I swear." she said.

"Hey, it's not so bad." said James, voice coming closer. "You've seen me shirtless before."

"Yeah, it's just embarrassing, that's all." Lily's hands weren't quite steady as she struggled to open Remus's trunk. She took a deep breath. "Which is exactly what they want."

James snorted. "Yeah, I have to give them credit, this one was actually pretty well planned out. Here, let me help you with that." He was suddenly next to Lily, undoing the clasps on the trunk. She backed away as much as she could, although she was trapped in between him and the nightstand. "Sirius, the git, managed to accidentally spill some pumpkin juice all over my clothes at the exact right moment. And I'm guessing Remus magically found a really interesting book for you to read a few days ago, and told you to go up and get it?"

Lily snorted. "He started talking about the book the day you got them detention, actually. They've caught on far too quickly."

James laughed and opened the trunk. He stepped back while Lily examined its contents. "We're going to have to get them back for this."

Lily nodded as she shuffled through the books. Her heart rate was slowly returning to normal, although the room still hot. "Oh yeah. Something obvious, too. I think that's the only way we'll be able to pull off them overhearing us talking about them without seeing it as a move on our part."

James leaned against Remus's bed, making it squeak. "Oh, right, yeah. Any more ideas about that?"

"Well, we've got to find a time when one of them is alone." said Lily. "If they're together, they're never going to believe it, they'll look at each other and start laughing and then it'll become a joke. The best time I can think of is when Remus and I come back from Prefect duty, or if you somehow manage to keep Sirius late after a Quidditch practice. One of us will stay up late waiting for the other, and give some really obvious line about wanting to talk. With any luck, they'll still be in earshot and try to overhear us, and then we can have whatever conversation we want."

James nodded. "You know, that's actually a really good idea. I would have never thought you would be good at this stuff, Lily."

"Well, I'm no Love Healer." said Lily, grinning at him, but they held each other's stare for a little too long, and she was suddenly keenly aware that she was alone, in a bedroom, with a highly attractive boy who had been nearly nude a few minutes ago. And who was dating her best friend. She cleared her throat, dropping her eyes. "So...yeah. We can start with Remus's and I's next patrol this week, if you want." Lily pushed past him to leave, but he caught her wrist.

"Wait." said James. Reluctantly, Lily turned around- he was still standing way too close to her. "We, uh, we have to talk about what else we're going to do."

Lily took a step back as subtly as she could, trying not to blush again. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if we do this overhearing thing right now, they'll just think it's our next move, won't they?" James said. "So we've got to do something else obvious before then so they think that's our move."

Lily tapped her lip, trying to think of every matchmaking ploy she'd learned or seen throughout the years. "Hmm...you know, I'm not sure how to make this happen, but I think I have an idea."

* * *

Lily read Remus's book as quickly as she could. It was fairly interesting, a biography of one of the biggest innovators in Potions history, but she also wanted to get the next step going as quickly as possible. Once she finished, she alerted James and left the book in the place they'd discussed. After about a half hour or so, she went to go tell Remus. As expected, he and Peter were sitting alone, playing a game of Exploding Snap.

"Hey." she said. "I finished your book."

"You did?" asked Remus as Peter took another card from the stack. "Did you like it?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah, it was really interesting, thanks. Let me just..." She reached into her bag, pretending to search. "Oh no!" Lily slapped her forehead. "I am so sorry about this, but I think I might've left it out on the grounds when I was reading out there today."

Remus shrugged, eyeing the tall tower of cards on their table. "That's fine. You can get it back to me later."

"Yeah, but I think it's about to start raining." said Lily. "And I don't have time to go right now, I promised to meet Mary and Alice before dinner. I'm so sorry about this, but would you mind terribly...?"

Remus met her eyes, and Lily struggled to look as sincere as she could. She knew the whole thing was an obvious set up- that was part of the plan, so they didn't expect James and Lily to try another move soon after. She just hoped Remus's love of books would rule over his desire to avoid whatever James and Lily were trying next.

"On the grounds, you say?" Remus stood, gathering his cloak around him.

Lily nodded. "Yeah. Near that tree overlooking the lake, the one James defaced last year. I'm so sorry, Remus, I really am-"

Remus shrugged. "Accidents happen. I'll be back quickly, Wormtail."

"All right, cheers." said Peter, as Remus gathered up his things and left. Peter turned to Lily. "So you're meeting Mary and Alice?"

"Yeah." said Lily, smiling. "I've got to go really soon, so-"

Peter shrugged, not seeming all that interested in having a conversation with her as she'd thought. "Oh. All right. Say hi to Mary for me."

"Right." said Lily, waving as she hurried up to her room to grab a thicker coat. She pulled on her coat, tying her bright hair back into a bun so it would be less obvious, and then clambered back downstairs, taking the steps two at a time.

On her way out of the portrait, she ran into Alice and Frank in the hallway.

"You're in a hurry." said Alice.

Lily smiled. "Yeah, I just forgot something out on the grounds and I wanted to get it before it started raining. Talk to you tonight."

She walked quickly out the the grounds, putting her hood up. She would have to take a circular route to where she wanted to be so no one would see her, but hopefully Remus and Sirius wouldn't be paying much attention to her anyways.

Finally, Lily found the right spot. She lay down on her stomach next to James, at the perfect angle to observe Remus and Sirius across the lake.

"Hey." he said.

"Hey." Lily wriggled forward a little, until they were side by side. "What'd I miss?"

"Moony took a while to come out here, so not much." whispered James. "Think he knew what we were gonna pull. Pads just discovered that we are not, in fact, having a Marauder picnic on a cloudy day in March, as I previously told him."

Lily snorted, stretching her neck a little to watch where Remus and Sirius were sitting. They'd actually set up a picnic under the tree, but not for four platonic friends- they'd done everything they could to make it as romantic as possible, including arranging flowers around the area, and lighting a few scented candles. The candles belonged to James, and were enchanted to sing shrill love songs whenever they were lit. Lily didn't ask why he owned them.

"What is this, then?" Sirius asked loudly, voice floating over the lake towards them.

"James and Lily." said Remus, turning towards them.

James swore and ducked down, and Lily followed suit, turning her head to face him so she could lay flat. For a long, frozen moment, they stared at each other, eyes wide and terrified. Gradually, Lily felt herself turning red- James's breath was hot on her face, and she had to stop herself from looking down at his lips.

"It's one of their plans." Lily dimly heard Remus say. "Like getting us in detention together."

Lily dragged her eyes away from James's face and put as much space between them as she dared, peering back over the hill at Remus and Sirius. "I think we're good." she whispered. "He was just talking about us, he didn't see us."

"Right." James said after a moment, sliding away from her and looking back at Remus and Sirius.

The two under the tree were discussing what to do. "Well, there's no need to waste good food." said Sirius, opening up the picnic basket. "Prongs actually got us food for this, we might as well." He held up the candles. "Oh, look, he really went all out for this one!"

"Yeah, they went surprisingly far." said Remus. There was something uncertain about his tone, but he sat down across from Sirius, reaching into the basket. "He even got us chocolate."

Sirius grinned. "What do you say? Wanna have our own Marauder picnic?"

Remus laughed, but Lily was distracted from the rest of what he was saying by raindrops on her back. "Oh, no." she whispered.

"What?" asked James, eyes still on his friends.

"It's starting to rain." Lily said. "They're not going to stay out here."

James shook his head, waving a hand at her. "No, no, no, this is perfect, look." Lily scooted back up beside him- Remus and Sirius were pulling the picnic blanket further under the tree, glancing up at the sky. "They're gonna wait the storm out under there. They're trapped until it stops raining, or until they decide to brave it. This is so much better than I expected."

Even Lily couldn't help but smile. "You know, that's actually kind of romantic. A picnic in the rain. But what about us? I'm not staying down here until they leave."

James was still watching Remus and Sirius as the rain picked up, but his eyebrows were furrowed. "Well, I've got this- this cloak."

"What's that?" Lily asked, raising her voice to be heard over the rain. She was quickly getting soaked, cold water seeping through her clothes.

"It's just a cloak with a Disillusionment Charm, that's all." James said quickly. "Aw, shit, you'll see, we just need to get out of here before they see us." He dug a large piece of silvery fabric out of his robes and pulled it over the two of them.

Lily watched as most of their bodies completely disappeared, feeling his arms brush up against her black. "Well, that explains quite a lot."

"Yeah." whispered James, kneeling and holding the cloak up with his hands. Lily followed suit. This close, she could make out tiny droplets of water in his eyelashes. "It won't cover all of us, but it should help us get back quickly without getting wet, and they probably won't be able to see our feet from where they're sitting. Just stay close to me. Ready?"

Lily nodded. She could feel dampness already starting to seep through the cloak. They stood, her stepping as closely to him as she dared, and hurried back to the castle doors, stumbling occasionally because of the difficulty of running underneath the cloak. Lily did her best not to notice their proximity- really, she didn't need another reminder of how good he smelled or another excuse for her rebellious mind to picture what he would be like shirtless this close to her. She wished Remus and Sirius's plans weren't succeeding so well.

Once they snuck indoors, James pulled the cloak off of her and stuffed it back into his pocket, looking down at the floor. "I gotta go." he said, jerking his thumb vaguely over his shoulder. "Good plan, though."

"Thanks." said Lily, smiling wanly. "And, um, let me know about the eavesdropping plan, all right? We should do it soon, before they retaliate."

James nodded, already turning away.


	11. Chapter 11

When Lily returned to her room to change out of her damp clothes, Mary and Alice were already there. Their voices wafted out to the hallway as she approached the door.

"-just not sure what to think." said Mary. "I really don't know what to do."

"Why don't you just talk to James, and-" Alice broke off as Lily entered the room. "Lily! You're wet."

"Yeah, it started raining." Lily said, walking into the bathroom to grab a towel. She rubbed it over her hair, walking back out. "So, what's going on with you guys?"

"Nothing." Mary said. "Where've you been?"

Lily shrugged "Left something out on the grounds and went to go get it." She sat down, avoiding Mary's eyes. She really had to put a stop to this, before it got any worse- but they were so close to getting Remus and Sirius together, and she would need a good excuse if she didn't want James to find out the real reason she wanted to end things.

"Here, let me." said Alice, and Lily sat back as Alice cast a drying spell on her hair. "Have you seen James at all today?"

Lily stood and crossed to her dresser, pulling out a clean change of clothes. "Um...not really. Why do you ask?"

"I just wanted to talk to him, that's all." said Mary. "I don't know where he's been."

Lily felt guilt flood her chest. "Maybe he's off with Peter?"

Mary shrugged. "I was with Peter until a few minutes ago. Must be wherever Remus and Sirius are."

Alice frowned. "That's strange. Those four are usually together."

"Yeah, you'd be surprised." said Mary. "Remus and Sirius had a big fight a few weeks ago, although they're all right now, and...I don't know, sometimes they all sort of forget about Peter." Mary sighed. "I don't know why, because he's not a bad guy, but I think he just doesn't fit in with the rest of them sometimes."

"Mmm-hmm." Alice said.

Lily sat back down on the bed, buttoning up her shirt. "What'd you want to talk to James about?"

Mary looked down at the floor. "A few things. You should go down and play Exploding Snap with Peter. Apparently Remus was playing with him for a while but he left and still hasn't returned."

Lily shrugged. "All right. Once I get a little more dried off."

* * *

The next day that she had patrol with Remus, Lily tried to find James all day to get the status of the plan, but it seemed like he was avoiding her. They joked around a little at meals, like usual, but every time Lily tried to talk to him one-on-one, he seemed not to notice. Finally, she passed him a note during Potions.

James glanced up at her and nodded, and that was that.

Patrol with Remus was as normal as it had ever been lately- that is, in between their normal conversations, Remus still complimented James excessively, and Lily still made as many comments as she dared insinuating that Remus and Sirius were a couple. Usually, Remus seemed amused, but tonight, he was a little quiet.

"You all right?" Lily finally asked

Remus seemed to shake himself. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just...thinking, that's all."

It occurred to Lily that the next full moon might not be too far away. She went easier on him after that.

They returned to the common room late, as they always did, only this time, James sat waiting for her. "Hey, Lily, can I talk to you about something for a sec?" he said, glancing at Remus. "Alone?"

Lily followed his gaze. "Yeah, sure. Good night, Remus."

Remus bade them good night, and started up the stairs. Once he was out of sight, James loudly whispered, "All right, Remus and Sirius are driving me crazy."

Lily sat down, hoping Remus was taking the bait. "Yeah, I agree with you. We need to step it up. It's ridiculous how long this is taking."

James shook his head. "I just wanted to finally get them together!" he said at a volume completely inappropriate for two people seated at the same table. "Remus has been in love with Sirius for years, and now that Sirius has finally realized he feels the same way-"

Lily heard a step squeak. She hoped it wasn't just her imagination. "You're sure Sirius likes him back? He did just date Marlene. He was pretty upset when she dumped him."

"Yeah, that was mostly just her hurting his pride." said James. "Of course I know Sirius likes him, he's practically my brother. I think he just doesn't know what to do. You know how Remus is, he never shows it when he likes someone. Sirius has no idea so he's trying to get over him by dating girls he doesn't care about. But it's not working, and it's hurting both of them. If neither of them do anything about it..."

Lily sighed. "I don't know what else they could possibly think we're doing." she said, raising her voice as much as she dared. "I mean, it's really obvious that we're trying to set them up at this point, isn't it? And it's really obvious that they both want it-"

"I don't know." said James. "I don't know what else we can do. I think one of them is just going to have to make a move. But Sirius can't tell how Remus feels, and Remus probably thinks there's no way Sirius could like him back-"

Lily sniffed. "They're both so moronic about this. If they'd both just admit what was really going on, they could just do something about it."

"You're right." said James, dropping his gaze to the table. "Remus and Sirius really need to figure this out. I don't know, maybe we should leave them alone for a while, let them do it on their own time. They've still got detention with each other three times a week."

"Yeah, all right." said Lily. "We can start up again in a little bit if they're still pining."

"Yeah." said James.

Lily met his eyes, not knowing what else to say. "Yeah."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"So...good night?" James said, cocking his head back towards the stairs.

"Right, yeah." said Lily, standing. "Good night. Talk to you later."

As she turned and headed towards the stairs, she heard footsteps on the boy's side and smiled. Let Remus think about that for a while.

* * *

The next day, Sirius tried to get James and Lily stuck together.

He did it subtly, of course- the Marauders just happened to be by Lily's table during Charms, and he just happened to accidentally cast a binding spell that quite accurately hit the two of their arms and tie them together.

"Oops." he said, wiping his nose on his sleeve. "Must've mispronounced something while trying this new spell. It's this damn cold I've got."

"And how'd you get a cold that bad?" James said, tugging at the ropes binding his wrist to Lily's. He hadn't looked her in the eyes since their conversation last night.

Lily pulled out her wand, trying a few spells, but nothing seemed to make any difference. She turned to Alice, who shrugged. "I've never seen this type of thing before."

Sirius shrugged too, a gleam appearing in his eye. "I don't know, it must've been a few days ago when I was invited out to a Marauder picnic and got rained on." He smirked. "Wonder what happened with that."

James grinned back easily. "Oh, mate, I was joking, thought you realized. Now, you can undo this, right?"

Sirius sniffled. "Dunno. Dunno how I did it in the first place."

"Black, you better figure out how to undo this." Lily said. "We've got different schedules, I am not walking around with James-"

"I could sneeze and wave my wand towards you, maybe that would accidentally undo it?"

"Go ask Flitwick." said Remus quietly. He'd been oddly subdued all day. "He can probably figure out what's going on."

Sirius's grin slipped as he looked over at Remus. "Are you sure? Flitwick might take points from them, and we know Evans doesn't want that."

"Black-" Lily began, clenching a fist.

Remus didn't return Sirius's gaze. "Yeah. They gotta figure it out before tonight, don't they? You've got Quidditch practice."

"Oh, right." Sirius's face fell, and he turned away, coughing.

Lily couldn't watch this any longer. She stood, dragging James with her. "Come on."

As soon as they were a good distance away, Lily turned to him. "Are you sure you want to trick Sirius tonight? It seems like we're just making things worse."

James reached up to run a hand through his hair, and then faltered when he realized Lily's arm was still attached to his."Well, we can't leave it like this. Sirius is more proactive. Maybe if he finds out how Remus feels, he'll do...something."

Lily nodded. James still wouldn't meet her eyes. "All right, tonight after Quidditch practice then." She raised her bound arm, shaking it. "It's almost over."

"Yeah." James said, unsmiling. "It really is."

* * *

After they put their plan into action for Sirius, Sirius and Remus's pranks stopped entirely. Lily was grateful, really- even if Remus and Sirius still seemed awkward around each other (well, not that she saw them much, Sirius missed a few days of class for his sickness, and Remus seemed to be spending a lot of time taking care of him), it was nice not to have to interact with James anymore. She didn't know what was worse- the times they had been friendly and close and just a breath away from doing something very wrong, or this new James, who never tried to talk to her, never looked at her, never teased her or pranked her or anything.

And she wasn't the only one. Something was up with Mary and James, too. They ate meals separately now, rarely walked in the corridors together,and, when Mary and Peter were working on homework together, James never came by to visit. It hurt to see him just ignoring her and Mary like that, going about his day like nothing was wrong. Mary didn't seem to mind too much- apparently, whatever was happening between them was mutual- but she started talking with Peter more, seeking his advice on James.

And meanwhile, James's birthday was drawing ever closer. Lily watched it approach with a dull sort of dread in her stomach. She had no idea whether or not he was going to get the tattoo, but if he did, and if he got her, there was nothing she could do- if she tried to hide her wrist again with a bandage, it would be pretty obvious why, and she could only wear long sleeves for so long as the weather warmed up. Also, Mary and James didn't seem to have officially split up yet, and the possibility of having to tell Mary about her tattoo was more real than ever. Her sleep was fitful every night, making it harder to focus in class without slipping off into daydreams about just how badly Mary was going to take this. And even though Lily knew she should be cherishing what were probably the last few weeks of her friendship with Mary and Alice (because Alice and Mary were friends since birth, there was no way Alice was taking Lily's side), she found herself withdrawing from them, spending more time alone.

On the night before James's birthday, Lily wandered restlessly around the castle, consumed by her worries. For the sixtieth time, she wondered if she should just go ahead and tell Mary and get it over with- but no, she didn't know if James would get his tattoo, or if he would have her on his wrist. It wouldn't matter at all if he never got his tattoo, especially with the way they'd been ignoring each other lately. The thought made her heart sink all over again.

" _Levicorpus. Petrificus Totalus_."

Lily felt herself rise into the air, limbs frozen, and panic shot through her, but when she rotated around, Black was the one standing there, grinning with his wand out. "Don't worry, Evans, you don't have far to go."

Lily tried to thrash around, to curse him, to get her wand, something, but she was unable to move as he floated her down the hallway and around a corner. Remus stood there, holding a door open, and Lily panicked anew when she realized what was happening.

"Got him?" Sirius asked, grinning at Remus.

"Yep." Remus said, smiling back. "Sorry about this, Lily, but you can't expect us to not get revenge."

Sirius floated Lily into the closet, where she landed on something bony, and then they closed the door, leaving her in full darkness.

"Yeah, and you thought we wouldn't notice." Sirius chuckled, casting a few muttered spells on the door. "Don't worry, you know how to get out!" he called, and then Lily heard their whispers and laughter fading into the distance.

For a few minutes, there was silence- Lily could feel James breathing below her, but he seemed equally unable to move. Then, he shifted suddenly, gasping. "I'm going to kill them." he said hoarsely, and Lily felt him digging for his wand and then pressing it into her back. " _Finite Incantatem_."

Immediately, Lily stood, stumbling over James's legs to go for the door. She violently shoved at it, but only succeeded at making it rattle in its frame. "Black! Lupin! Get back here and undo this this instant!" There was no response, and Lily growled, rattling the door in frustration.

"Lily, Lily, calm down." said James, standing. "They're gone, they're not going to let us out."

"I can't believe they did this." said Lily. "I cannot believe-" She punched the door, all the frustration of the past few weeks suddenly exploding outwards. "This is way over the line, this is beyond anything we did-"

"I know, I know." said James. He grabbed onto her shoulders. "Just calm down, all right? And then we can figure out how to get out of here, and get revenge." His voice was tight, controlled.

Lily took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. "I thought- you can't just full Body Bind someone without warning!" She whirled around to face him. "I thought they'd given up! What are they doing now?"

"This is my fault." whispered James. His hair rustled as he ran a hand through it. "They were acting weird around each other so I may have left Remus with the job of taking care of sick Sirius whenever possible to get them to talk. They've gotten much friendlier since, but I never thought they'd go this far."

"Why aren't they together?" Lily said. "They know how they feel, they know how the other feels, they're clearly on good terms, what are they doing still playing tricks on us?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." said James.

Lily sighed, some of the anger sapping out of her frame. Remus and Sirius weren't James's fault, and neither was Lily's recent stress. "Happy birthday to you." she muttered. "Clearly you Marauders are as loyal as I always thought."

James laughed wearily. "Normally I'd defend us, but the way things have been the past few days, you might have a point."

"Worried about the Quidditch final?" she said, concerned despite herself. "You sound exhausted."

"Something like that. You want to try and get out of here?"

Lily nodded, and then realized he couldn't see her. "Yeah, no, I'd rather stay trapped in this cramped broom closet with you." With him and his scent and his chest and standing so close to him-

"Good to know." said James. "Here, let's switch places, I want to try the door."

"I already did." Lily protested as he rotated them until she was towards the back.

"I know." James said, pushing at the door. Lily ducked to avoid his elbow. "No offense, but you're tiny."

Lily snorted. "Well, maybe I won't help you get out of here."

"Lily..."

"Clearly you're such a macho man that you don't need my help."

"Okay, yeah, that was out of line, sorry." said James, trying again.

This time, he did hit Lily. "Ow! Watch it!"

"Sorry." said James, turning and grabbing her face. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, let go of me." Lily snapped, pushing him away. James cursed as he hit the wall, and Lily clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to push you that hard."

"I'm fine." James said, righting himself next to her again. "Let's just stop with the shoving for a moment, yeah?"

"We could try magically unlocking the door." said Lily, backing herself into the opposite corner from him.

His arm brushed her shoulder as he reached up to ruffle his hair again. "Nah, it'll never be that easy. What did he say? 'You know how to get out'?"

"But we don't." said Lily. "How the hell are we supposed to know what he was talking about? I'm going to sit down." She slid down the wall, wrapping her arms around her knees.

James followed her move. This close, their legs were tangled in each other's, and they could hear every movement the other made. James's legs were warm against her own, although he kept jiggling one of them, practically vibrating the whole closet. "Sure we do. We just have to think like Remus and Sirius."

"Would you stop shaking your leg like that?" Lily snapped.

James's leg stilled. "Sorry." he said, sounding wounded. "Just- just a nervous habit."

Lily immediately felt like she'd kicked a house elf. "No, I'm sorry. This isn't your fault." She shook her hair out of her face. "All right, you're the expert on Remus and Sirius, how do we think like them?"

"You okay?" asked James instead. "You don't sound great, yourself."

Lily hesitated, wishing she could see his face. "Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine. It's been- it's been a rough few days."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." said James. "Is- is Mary all right?"

Lily wanted to ask what was happening between them, but she was a bit afraid of the answer. "She's as good as she can be. What's..." Lily began. "Never mind. It's not any of my- is it because of your birthday tomorrow, and the tattoo?"

James didn't answer for a moment. "Is she saying that?"

"Oh, no, not really, I was just wondering." Lily's heart pounded in her chest. "Are you going to get one?"

"I don't know, to be honest." admitted James. "I was thinking, for a while, that I wouldn't get mine out of respect for her not getting hers, but with the way things are going lately, it might be better to just know already."

"Do you want her to be your soulmate?" asked Lily, wrapping her arms around her knees.

James didn't answer for a long moment. "I don't think she wants me to be hers anymore, to be honest. I...don't know how I feel about her being mine. Has she not mentioned anything?"

"No." said Lily. "She hasn't been talking to me at all about this."

"Yeah, I..." James shifted, legs rubbing up against Lily. "I don't know. I don't know what we are anymore. Sometimes it seems like maybe we'd both be better off with other people."

And this sounded like territory that Lily should stay out of. "Well, you and her should talk about that, as soon as we get out of here. And as soon as we kill Remus and Sirius for doing this and hide the bodies."

"Is it weird that I've actually missed talking to you?" Lily could hear the smile in James's voice.

Lily laughed. "Maybe a little."

"Sorry for...being preoccupied lately."

Lily reached out, grabbing his knee. "I...I understand. Honestly, I think I might have missed you a bit, too." As soon as it was out of her mouth, she regretted it. She removed her hand from him, and crossed her arms on top of her knees. "You know, life is pretty boring when I'm not being bugged by you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Lily said. "But don't worry, I'm not getting sappy, just trying to uphold our truce."

"Right." said James.

There was a long silence.

"Lily-" James began, and there was a question in his tone Lily didn't want to answer.

"So should we try and figure out this riddle?" she said quickly.

"Right, right, yeah." said James. "I suppose they wouldn't try to leave us to rot here forever, so there's got to be a way out."

Lily snorted. "Well, apparently we already know what it is. What do you think Remus and Sirius would make us do that is obvious?" A thought occurred to her. "Wait, do they know password locking spells? The type that would require a word or action to unlock?"

"I wouldn't put it past them." said James. "You'd be surprised how much Sirius learned from his parents."

"All right, well, that would be one obvious way." Lily said. "I'm assuming that they do want us to get out eventually and wouldn't just stick us in here forever?"

"Yeah, of course." said James. "So it's gotta be something obvious...a word or phrase..."

"Maybe sorry?" Lily said. "Or Remus and Sirius were right? Or please? Or let us out? Maybe we have to both say it at once-"

"No, there's too many nuances there for it to be obvious." said James. "It's probably an action." He was silent for a second. "I've...I've got an idea, but you're not going to like it."

Lily snorted, shifting as much as she dared with James sitting so close. "At this point, I'd do just about anything to get out of here."

"Well." James shifted too, hesitating. "What did we do to get them in here? We tried to set them up excessively. And we made them kiss."

Lily's heart dropped like a stone, and she backed up as far as she could. "No, no, no, there's gotta be some other way, it's gotta be something else-"

"I don't know." James said. "I...it's a pretty obvious goal when you lock two people in a closet, even for a revenge ironic setup, and anyways, when we locked Sirius in the closet with girls third year, that was always why. To get a kiss for him."

Lily shook her head. "No. Absolutely not. I'm sorry, James, but I'm Mary's friend, there is no way-"

"She doesn't have to know-"

Lily's temper flared immediately."You sound like you're trying to convince me to cheat. Which is actually what you're trying to do, and you are every inch the git I always thought-"

"No, no, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that, all right?" James said. "I just- if it's the only way out of here-"

"We don't even know that." said Lily. "We haven't tried anything else."

"All right, all right, sorry." James laughed uncertainly. "We can try other stuff first, okay? Is there really something so awful about kissing me?"

"No, nothing's wrong, it's just that I don't want to." said Lily. "And Mary is my friend, and you're already fighting with her. Look...if we try everything, and nothing else works, then we can try that, all right?"

"Right." said James. "It's a last resort."

Lily nodded, still feeling dread curling in her stomach uneasily. James's argument made a lot of sense, unfortunately. It did seem like the sort of thing Remus and Sirius would do, especially given the way they'd thrown James and Lily in here.

"All right." said Lily. "Let's try apologizing first. That's a pretty simple one."

James's hand pawed at her leg until he found her arm. "Wait. We probably have to say it at the same time. On three?"

Lily nodded again, and then realized he couldn't see her. "Yeah, good idea. One, two-"

They tried 'sorry' first, and then 'please', and then things like 'Remus and Sirius were right' (with variations on the boys' last names and nicknames) and 'we were wrong!'. They also tried the current Gryffindor password, Alohomora, and even 'you know what to do', and then, when none of those worked, 'help!'.

James banged his head against the back of the closet. "I swear those two are going to die in their sleep once I get out of here."

"Yes, we're definitely going to have to do something to them for revenge." said Lily. "Your birthday party's this weekend, right?"

"Yep!" said James. "Pads better do a good job throwing it to make up for all of this."

"Why don't we propose a game of truth or dare?" Lily said. "That's got a lot of possibilities."

James snorted. "You know, I'm surprised. I would've thought you'd be suggesting we back off by now or else they'll get us back worse."

"No, I want revenge." said Lily. "This is completely uncalled for." She straightened up, accidentally kicking James. "Wait, I think I know what they want us to do!"

"Ow, ow, okay, what?"

"Maybe it's not a kiss but something similar." Lily licked her lips. "They might...they might want us to say 'I love you' or something like that."

The only sound for a second was James scratching his head. "Uh, all right. I guess we could try that. On three?"

Lily's mouth was suddenly dry. "Yeah. One, two-" Despite herself, her eyes drifted towards where James's face probably was. "-three."

"I love you." they muttered together, barely audible even in the silence of the closet. They waited for a moment, but nothing changed.

"Damnit, I just want to get out of here!" Lily hit the wall behind her.

"It's all right, it's all right, it's fine." said James, reaching for her arm again. "Maybe we have to talk about each other specifically? Like...'I'm in love with L-Lily Evans' or something."

"Or maybe the password is 'fuck you both'." Lily said. "This is hopeless. You're right, a spoken password is too difficult for us to guess."

There was a pause. "So you think we might have to..."

Lily's skin was burning now with the itching desire to be anywhere but here. Forget truth or dare, she was actually going to murder Remus next time they had patrol together. "Yes, unfortunately, I think you might be right."

James shifted against the wall. "Um. Well. I guess we have to try it."

"Yeah." Lily said, balling her hands into fists. "It's just to get out of here. It won't be that bad. Mary will understand."

James laughed. "Yeah, yeah, it'll be fine. It's not like it means anything."

"Yeah."

"So...should we..."

Lily's heart was beating faster now, thudding against her ribcage. She felt like she could barely breathe. "Yeah, um...we should." She squeezed her eyes shut, reaching forward to find James's face.

"Whoa!" James said as her hand brushed up against his cheek. "Sorry, that scared me."

"I've gotta find where you are, don't I?" Lily snapped.

"Lily, relax, it'll be all right." said James, grabbing onto her wrist. He was leaning forward now, his voice coming closer, and Lily could barely hear him over the rushing in her ears. "Save that anger for when we get out of here."

And even though Lily couldn't see him, she could feel his nearness, the heat coming off his skin, the smell of his clothing, his sheer presence so close to her. She felt warm and fizzy all over, the same way her wrist had when she'd ran into James. "Maybe I just don't want to be the girl who's kissed all four Marauders." she said, but her voice came out as a squeak.

James laughed, and he was close enough that Lily could feel it on her cheek. "We can say that Padfoot doesn't count if you like."

"All right." said Lily, so close now that his nose was brushing her cheek, "then let's-" Before she could finish her sentence, the air in front of her suddenly was cold and empty. "James?" she said, feeling for him in the dark.

"I...sorry." he said unsteadily.. "Just wanted to try something else first."

"A- All right." Lily's heart was still beating fast, her mind still buzzing.

"You understand. Since this is a last resort and all." James shuffled around, and Lily leaned back, doing her best to give him plenty of room. "All right. _Alohomora_."

"We already tried that." said Lily a bit breathlessly.

"I'm actually trying unlocking spells." said James. "I mean, how much worse could they make this?"

As James attempted a few more, Lily laughed. "Thanks, that's flattering." She pulled out her wand and followed his example, although her mind still hadn't cleared enough to remember all the unlocking spells she knew.

After another moment, James stopped. "I don't think it's working." he said, sounding defeated.

"Wait, wait, wait... _Finite Incantatem_." Lily said. She pushed against the door, and this time, it opened a crack.

"Are you bloody joking!" James barked. He disentangled himself from Lily and pushed the door all the way open. "We've been sitting in here trying to think of passwords and the whole time-" He walked out, and immediately leaned against the wall. "Oh, Merlin. Let's never tell anyone about this, all right?"

Lily stood and followed him out, nearly shaking from relief. "Well, someone said that using unlocking spells was too obvious-"

"And someone suggested the password spells in the first place!" said James. They looked at each other for a moment, and then Lily began snickering, and James quickly joined in. For a moment, they both laughed until they were both out of breath, slouched on the floor of the hallway.

"I cannot believe it took us that long to use Finite Incantatem." Lily giggled.

James rubbed some tears of merriment out of his eyes. "I cannot believe that we overestimated Remus and Sirius that much."

Lily snorted and began laughing again. "Oh, yeah, Hogwart's evil geniuses, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black!"

"Hey, Sirius does know the password-locking spell, for the record." said James with a grin. "He used it on his room at home for a while."

"Yeah, but does he really know a lock that can only be undone with a kiss?" Lily said, giggling.

"Yeah, oddly enough." James looked away, standing, and offering a hand to her. "Come on." he said as he pulled her up. "We gotta get a plan together for my birthday party. They are not getting away with this one."

"Right, of course." said Lily, following him down the hall. "But, um, James?"

He turned around to face her, walking backwards. "Yeah?"

Lily bit her lip. "Um...talk to Mary before you decide whether or not to get your tattoo tomorrow. She deserves to know." There. That was all Lily could do.

James nodded. "Right. Of course I will."


	12. Chapter 12

James's birthday dawned bright and sunny. Lily awoke expecting to feel nervous, but strangely, she was perfectly calm. The decision was mostly out of her hands. If he chose not to get a tattoo, she could keep going as she had been for almost two months now, and if he chose to get one, the secret would finally be out and she would be done with it, for better or for worse. In the spirit of that, Lily decided to wear a short-sleeved shirt, so she had no way to back out, no matter what happened.

When Lily returned to the bedroom after taking a shower, she found Alice and Mary waiting for her. "What?" she said, resisting the urge to check her wrist. But no, James couldn't have gotten one this early in the day.

"I just thought we'd spend some time together today, just the three of us!" said Alice. "Since I feel like I've been leaving you guys for Frank too much lately."

"Aww, Alice, that's all right, we understand." said Lily. "You've wanted to date him for a while."

"Yeah, but that's no excuse to ditch friends." said Alice.

Mary folded her arms. "I think she also wants to take my mind off of...you-know-who's birthday today."

"Right." said Lily. She rubbed one arm nervously. "You aren't worried he'll get his tattoo, are you?"

Mary shrugged, turning away from Lily to pack up her bags. "What do I care?"

Lily's calm evaporated at the bitterness in Mary's voice. She did her best to smile anyways as she packed her things. "Well, forget him, right? Today is just about the three of us."

Alice nodded, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "Exactly! Ready to go down to breakfast?"

"Hold on." Lily said. She grabbed a long-sleeved robe and pulled it on quickly. "All right, let's go."

Mary gave her a strange look. "Aren't you going to be hot?"

Lily shrugged as they walked out of their room. "I'll be fine."

* * *

The Marauders began James's birthday as they usually did- with a loud prank at breakfast that covered James in food and landed all four of them in detention. When it happened, Lily used it as an excuse to examine him (while Mary carefully pretended not to notice), but his wrist was still bare.

All through the day, Lily tried to keep a eye on him when she could. He was acting no different than usual- maybe a bit more boisterous, and much louder in the hallways as people wished him a happy birthday, but he didn't miss lunch, or most of the classes they had together. Lily was momentarily worried when he didn't show up to Potions, but since his wrist stayed bare afterwards, she assumed it was just him deciding to cut class.

"You're twitchy today." Alice observed as they walked towards the Entrance Hall after their last class. It was one of the first good days of spring, and they were determined to take advantage of it.

Lily bit her lip. "Sorry. Just didn't sleep well last night."

Alice and Mary traded glances. "You've been twitchy a lot lately." said Mary. "Is it your sister again?"

"Um...it's nothing. Don't worry about it." Lily forced a smile. "I'm fine. I really am. Don't worry about me, all right?"

"Okay." said Alice. She pushed open the Entrance Hall doors and ushered them through. "So, you want to work on homework together?"

"Nah, I don't feel like working right now." said Mary.

"What do you want to do, then?" Lily asked as she followed the two of them across the grounds. "We could go for a swim, or play a game."

"Let's just sit." said Mary, sitting down next to their usual tree. "It's beautiful out here."

It really was- half of Hogwart's population had come out to enjoy the rare good temperatures. Most were walking around or basking in the sunlight, but the Marauders were down by the lake's edge with half of their clothes off, splashing each other and laughing loudly. Lily sat up a bit, trying to catch sight of James's wrist, but he met her eyes and she sank back down. She was pretty sure he didn't have a bandage on, though.

"It's so nice out here." said Mary. Alice lay down beside her, mumbling an agreement, and threw an arm over her face. "Don't you want to take that robe off?"

"You know what, yeah." said Lily, removing it. The breeze felt wonderful on her bare arms, and she still didn't have a name on her wrist. "I love the first good day of spring. It's almost better than all the ones after it.

"It's the comparison." said Mary. "By the time it gets really nice, we're all used to it."

"Hard to believe the school year will be over in a few months." Lily lay down on her stomach, facing out to the lake. "You realize we're all full adults now?"

"Hey, Alice and I have been adults for months already."

Lily made a face. "Yes, thank you, Mary. But we only have one more year of Hogwarts after this, and then we're going to have to go get careers and husbands and become adults."

"And with this war going on." said Mary moodily. "Mum tries not to talk about it, but apparently us and the McKinnons aren't exactly on You-Know-Who's good side. I think she's glad Marlene and I are at Hogwarts nine months out of the year."

Lily's stomach twisted. "I hadn't even thought of that. You better be careful, both of you. I don't think I could handle losing either of you to this."

"You, too." said Mary. "No, I'm serious. You need to be careful. We've at least got some wizarding blood in us."

Lily frowned, ripping a few blades of grass out of the ground. For a moment, neither girl spoke, and then Mary suddenly giggled. "Lily. Look."

Lily twisted over to look where Mary was pointing- Alice was sound asleep on the grassy hill. Lily grinned. "She must've be tired from all the late night walks she's taking with Frank."

"Should we do anything to her?" whispered Mary. "Draw on her face, or something?"

Lily wriggled over to Alice, picking up a stick. "Let's see how much stuff we can balance on her stomach."

Mary giggled again, reaching for another stick, but before she could, they heard footsteps approaching and looked up.

James smiled at them. "Hello, ladies. Could I borrow Mary for a moment?"

Mary gave Lily a confused glance. "Um, sure." she said. She stood and followed him a short distance away, where they stopped, facing each other.

Alice rolled over, squinting. "What's going on?"

"You fell asleep." said Lily, patting her on the shoulder. "And James came over to request the honor of Mary's presence."

Alice pushed herself up to a sitting position, eyeing where James and Mary were standing, just out of earshot. Mary had her arms crossed, but neither looked upset, just tense. "What for?"

"I'm not sure." said Lily. "Maybe they're talking about the tattoo?"

They watched the discussion for a moment, and then Alice sighed. "Oh well, it's not really our business."

"You still not planning on getting it?"

Alice shrugged. "Frank and I are happy together, why would I? And anyways, it doesn't seem to be all it's cracked up to be."

Lily smiled wryly. "Yeah, sorry, I kind of gave up on that."

"I don't think you're the only one." Alice said, brushing off her shirt.

"What do you mean?" asked Lily. "Peter's been spending a lot more time with me since this whole business started."

Alice didn't meet her eyes. "I don't know if he's been spending a lot more time with you, exactly."

"What are you talking about?"

Alice shook her head. "Nothing, never mind. Just a...something that I wonder about, that's all. You know it's so hard to tell what he's thinking sometimes."

Lily frowned. "I guess? I never really noticed. He's usually a lot more in the background than the other Marauders. He's just Peter, you know?"

Alice shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Just...just nothing. Look, Mary is coming back!"

Mary was indeed returning to their group, and Lily begrudgingly accepted the obvious subject change. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah." Mary said, sitting down. "We're talking again, at least. He just wanted to let me know that he wasn't going to get the tattoo if I didn't want him too."

Lily's shoulders sagged in relief.

"And do you?" Alice asked.

Mary shrugged. "I told him it was his choice, not mine, but he said he'd still hold off since I hadn't got mine yet. This whole situation is so complicated, isn't it? I can see why you haven't gotten yours, Alice."

"Are you guys doing all right?" Lily asked. "As a- as a couple?"

Mary twisted her mouth as though she's tasted something sour. "There are some- there are some issues that we need to work through a bit more. It's been rough, lately, and honestly, if it gets any rougher, it might be better just end things. Maybe get the tattoo to figure out if it's worth saving. But let's not focus on that, this is our girl's day." Mary sat down, smiling. "Alice, did you know that you say Frank's name in your sleep now?"

"What?" Alice gasped, turning an interesting shade of red. "What are you- no, I don't! I never-"

"Oh, Frank!" sighed Lily, and she and Mary broke down into giggles at the look on Alice's face.

Alice crossed her arms. "You two are mean."

"But you love us!" said Lily, throwing a handful of grass at her.

Mary elbowed her. "Wait, guys, look." She pointed towards where the Marauders were lounging by the side of the lake.

Marlene and Ludo, hand-in-hand, approached the Marauders. As they watched, Sirius stood, and he and Marlene walked a little ways away, leaving Ludo standing alone with his hands in his pockets by the Marauders.

Lily snickered. "That's gotta be awkward."

Mary shook her head. "I told her she shouldn't bring Ludo."

"Wait, wait, look!" said Alice. As they watched, Sirius nodded to something Marlene was saying and then began walking back to the Marauders. Lily squinted, trying to make his expression out, but he didn't look upset or angry. In fact, he seemed to be pretty good spirits. Marlene, from the way she started after Sirius, shared Lily's confusion. Sirius even stopped and offered his hand to Ludo.

"Don't take it, don't take it, it's a trap-" Mary began.

After a moment, Ludo took it, and they shook hands. Nothing else happened. Alice, Mary, and Lily exchanged glances.

"I guess he forgave them?" said Alice.

"That's so weird." Lily turned back to the scene, but Marlene was already pulling Ludo away "He never forgives that easily."

"Yeah, no kidding." said Mary. "Remember how it took him like a year to stop openly hating me after our breakup?"

"Something must've happened." murmured Alice.

Lily turned back to her. "Like what?"

"I have no idea." Alice said, shrugging. "But something made him forgive her, didn't it?"

* * *

The rest of the day passed in much the same fashion. Even when James's birthday ended, the next day was still uneventful- he and Mary went back to sitting together during meals, although they didn't kiss or flirt much. He still didn't show any inclination to get his tattoo. With Frank and Alice still together, Lily's secret safe, and Remus and Sirius seemingly satisfied with the revenge they'd gotten, it appeared that her worries were over. Lily couldn't believe it.

All of this lasted until Lily was awoken very early the next morning by something climbing onto her bed and a male voice whispering, " _Muffliato_."

Lily immediately jolted upright, flailing around her limbs for something to hit. "What the hell? Look, I don't know who you are, but I grew up Muggle, I know plenty of ways to hurt you without a wand-"

There was a muffled curse as her hand connected with something solid. "Ow, ow, okay, Lily, sorry."

Lily stopped. "James? What are you-"

"I need your help, please." he whispered urgently, and Lily's anger faded at once at his tone. "Something's happened, and I don't know who else to go to-"

"Shit." Lily said. "It's a full moon, isn't it? Is Remus-"

"No, no, no, not him." James said. "Sirius has him, they're in the Hospital Wing, he's all right. It's Peter-"

"Peter?" Lily asked. "What happened? Oh, Merlin, he's all right, isn't he?"

"I- I don't know." James said, and Lily didn't even need to see his face to know how ashamed he felt. "He- well, it was a particularly bad night, Remus did a lot of damage to himself and a little bit to us, and somehow in all of it, Peter ran off, and we didn't realize at first because we were so focused on getting Remus back to Hogwarts. I'm so sorry." He stopped, panting. "But I need you to help me come find him. Lily, please."

"What?" Lily asked. "Look, I want Peter safe, yes, but how am I going to be any help? I can't- I can't get in touch with my animal side like you four."

"You're his soulmate, aren't you? If anyone can find him, you can." whispered James, and Lily felt his hand on her ankle. "Look, even when I've got horns, it's still a bad idea to be alone out there, and Sirius is too busy helping Remus. And you're a Prefect, so if a professor catches us on our way out, you can give us some sort of legitimacy so they don't send me back right away. I can't just go ask a professor for help, not without getting Sirius and Peter sent to Azkaban, too. Please, Lily, it's got to be you."

"Fine." said Lily. "Let's go, then." She hurried out of bed, wrapping her robe around herself, and followed James out the door. "Wait...how did you get up here?"

"Really," James said, taking her arm and pulling her down the hall, "you think the wards care if a stag goes up into the girl's dorms? Hold on." James stopped at the top of the stairs, concentrating, and a moment later, a giant deer stood where he was. Lily gaped- she'd heard second hand from Severus about what the Marauders did, but that didn't compare to the sight of James Potter the giant stag, barely fitting into the narrow hallway. He turned back for a moment, assessing her reaction, and then bounded down the stairs far too noisily for this late at night. By the time Lily joined him, James was already back in human form, pulling a long, silvery cloak out of his pocket- the invisibility cloak, or whatever he'd called it.

"This will get us down there." he whispered as he hurried out the Portrait hole. "It's not big enough to get all three of us back if Peter's injured, but we should be able to get through the halls like this." He stopped, back still to her. "Get on my back."

"What?"

"We don't have time to stumble or trip or anything, Lily, and it'll cover us this way. Come on!" He motioned again, and, reluctantly, Lily climbed on. James grunted a bit as he accepted her weight before handing her the cloak to pull over the both of them. Silently, he began running through the halls, Lily holding on for dear life.

Surprisingly, they didn't run into anyone in the hallways, although Lily supposed even Filch had to sleep sometimes. Once they reached the grounds, out of sight of the castle windows, James stopped, letting Lily off of his back, and stuffed the Invisibility Cloak back in his pocket.

"Do you feel his presence anywhere?" he whispered as they entered the forest.

Lily's hand tightened on her wand. "Um...I don't know what to tell you, it's not a like a homing device, I can't-"

"You've got to help me, Lily!" James hissed. "He can't be injured!"

"All right, James." Lily said, squeezing his shoulder. "It'll be fine. Where did you last see him?"

James's face in the moonlight was still taut as he thought. Lily tried hard not to picture what other creatures were out during the full moon. Just in case, she raised her wand, running over the best spells she knew for defending James and herself.

"I think I remember." whispered James. "I can get there faster as a stag. Do you mind getting on my back? I'm pretty sure I can hold you."

Lily nodded. "Whatever you need." she said, and almost immediately, James was a stag again. Lily climbed on top of his back, and he turned and ran.

They thundered through the woods, Lily still keeping an eye out for any sign of the Forbidden Forest's usual locale. She could feel James's heartbeat beneath her clasped hands, sense somehow how frantic he was for any sign of Peter. Lily didn't know what to do- Peter wasn't even her soulmate, how was she supposed to track him? However, James was obviously not thinking clearly. Perhaps if she helped him stay calm, he'd be able to remember where Peter had gone.

James stopped for a moment, glancing around, and then set off in a different direction. He stopped again, and repeated the process, and then again, and again, until finally, he transformed back into a human, sending Lily crashing to the ground.

"I don't know where we were." James said, pacing wildly and running a hand through his hair. "I've got- I've got no idea where he is!"

Lily stood, approaching him slowly. "James, it'll be okay, we'll find him, or he'll find us-"

James rounded on her, voice rising. "No, it won't. He's going to get eaten by an owl or something, and then everyone will assume it's Moony's fault, and Moony will be expelled and sent to Azkaban, and he'll probably die in there thinking he did it. And that's if we're lucky and no one finds out about Sirius being an Animagus. And it'll be my fault for not watching them, and pushing everyone into this Animagi idea in the first place-"

Lily grabbed James's arms, trying to keep him steady. "It's not your fault, you were trying to help Remus-"

James broke away from her, messing up his hair with one hand again. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have dragged you out here, there's no point-"

"Look, it's all right, it'll be all right." said Lily desperately. "Maybe he went back to Hogwarts when he couldn't find you guys, maybe he's-"

They heard a crunch in the woods behind them and both whirled around, Lily whipping up her wand. A centaur stepped into sight, a young one, with long hair the color of the tree trunks around him. "You should not be here." he said.

"We're looking for a friend of ours." Lily kept her wand trained on the centaur, slowly moving so James was behind her. "He's short, blonde, blue eyes, a rat Animagi, have you seen him?"

"Don't point your wand at me, I am no threat." said the centaur. Lily slowly lowered it, but stayed in front of James."You two should not be here."

"We're not leaving until we find Peter." said James.

The centaur's expression shifted, although it was nearly impossible to tell in the moonlight what he was thinking. "Peter Pettigrew?"

"Yes, have you seen him?" James asked, moving forward to stand beside Lily.

The centaur watched them for a moment. "You're James Potter. And Lily."

"Answer the question." Lily said, a shiver going down her spine at his tone.

The centaur looked over at her. "I am not an oracle for humans. I advise you two to leave. You especially should not be here."

"Wait, wait, wait, sorry." said James. "She was raised by Muggles, she's ignorant about this kind of stuff. I'm sorry for her rudeness. And mine. I'm upset over my friend, that's all."

Lily glanced over at James. She wasn't sure what exactly was happening, but she trusted him to know the right thing to do. "Yes..I really am sorry. I didn't know."

James nodded. "We don't deserve any answers, we'll leave you alone now."

The centaur turned back. "Good. You two should go. The person you seek is out of the forest, but not safe yet."

"Yes sir, thank you sir." said James, bowing. Lily followed suit mutely as the centaur turned away and disappeared into the brush.

"He's out of the woods." she whispered. "See, James, he's fine. He's probably gone back to Hogwarts."

James's face was grim. "I don't think so, the centaur said he wasn't safe, remember? I think I know where he is."

"Where?" Lily asked.

By way of answering, James turned back into a stag, and Lily climbed on top of his back again as they hurried through the Forbidden Forest.

* * *

By the time they reached the edge, the sky was starting to get bright. James let Lily off of his back and became human again without breaking stride, heading straight for the Whomping Willow.

"What are you doing?" Lily called as she hurried after him. "Where are we going?"

James ducked out of the way of a branch, grabbed a twig, ducked again, and then levitated the twig towards a knob on the tree. Immediately, it stopped moving. Lily gaped at the sight.

"Come on." James called, and Lily followed him into a tunnel underneath the tree. How long had this been here without her noticing?

"What is this place?" Lily asked as she and James hurried up the stairs. It was completely wrecked inside- furniture, walls, doors, everything destroyed.

"It's the Shrieking Shack." whispered James. He was overturning the furniture now, frantically looking. "Madame Pomfrey set it up so that Remus would have a place to go when he transformed. Usually, we just stay in here and keep him at bay, but sometimes he gets out. Like last night. I checked here earlier, but Pete must've come back while we were in the Forest." James turned to the stairs, taking them two at a time. Lily ran up after him, and was searching one of the bathrooms when he called, "I found him."

Immediately, Lily hurried over to James- his tone was one of barely-restrained panic. "Oh, no." she said as she caught sight of Peter.

Peter was lying on the ground, looking dirtier than she'd ever seen him, with a large cut in his side and another few on his stomach. He seemed barely conscious.

James swore loudly. "A predator must've gotten at him while he was in rat form, look at those gashes. This is bad, this is really bad-"

" _Levicorpus._ " said Lily, and Peter's prone body floated up into the air. "He's going to be fine, all right? We found him, he made it back here just fine, and I'm sure Madame Pomfrey can take care of just about anything. Let's get him back to the Hospital Wing."

"Right." said James, following her out the door into the hall. "Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

* * *

They made it back into the halls by switching off casting the spell whenever one of them got too tired. Otherwise, they were silent. Lily wondered what Madame Pomfrey would think if she woke up to find Peter in such a state lying in the hospital wing- surely she would suspect Remus- but she assumed James was working on ideas, he was the more experienced liar. Every now and then, she glanced over at him- his face was still tight and serious. It was odd to see him looking this determined, taking something this seriously. Lily had known how strong the bond the Marauders shared was, but she had never really thought about just how much James would do for his friends, how he would probably die for them if necessary. She had never seen him as worried as he'd been out in the forest, and at the thought, some sort of affection stirred inside her, even as she tried her best to clamp it down.

Really, James had been full of surprises these past few weeks. Somehow he'd turned out to have an ocean of hidden depths that she never could have imagined. She'd known he was obsessed with Quidditch, but she hadn't realize how much he lead his team, even if his team complained about him at times. She'd known he love pranking, but she hadn't realized exactly how much cleverness went into his plans. She'd known he liked to joke around, but not how funny he could be. She'd known that he dated around a lot, but not that he could actually be a decent boyfriend, and a romantic about other people's love lives. She'd never noticed how caring he could be, always assumed that his happiness was just arrogance.

What else had she been wrong about?

"Potter! Evans! What exactly do you think you are doing-"

Lily froze, nearly leaping out of her skin as she realized they had run into Professor McGonagall. Luckily, McGonagall seemed caught off guard as well- she was staring at Peter floating in the air.

"What happened?" she said, flicking her wand. Peter floated into a more dignified position, as though he were on a stretcher, and McGonagall began walking up to the hospital wing with him. Lily and James hurried after her. She looked over her shoulder. "Well? What happened to him? Why were you three out?"

"It was my fault, Professor." said James as he hurried after her. "I was bored, so I convinced Peter to go play four AM Quidditch with me, and he fell off his broom. Lily- Evans saw us leave so she came after us."

"Is this true?" McGonagall said, looking over at Lily.

Lily nodded mutely as they reached the Hospital Wing.

"Very well. You two stay here." said McGonagall, floating Peter inside.

"You didn't have to do that." whispered Lily.

James shrugged. "She wouldn't have believed me if I said you were out with us."

"Black! What are you doing?" McGonagall asked loudly.

"Bugger. Hold on." James hurried inside the hospital wing. "He was out playing four AM Quidditch with Peter and I, professor, we just sent him ahead to wake up Madame Pomfrey."

Black's voice floated out into the hallway, sounding ragged. "Yes, I just love four AM Quidditch, Professor."

There was a pause. "Very well. Black, Potter, go join Evans out in the hall while I wake up Poppy. Don't try to leave if you know what's good for you."

"Yes, Professor." chorused Sirius and James, and they hurried out into the hall.

Sirius looked even more exhausted than James, if that was possible. "What is she doing here?" he asked.

"She helped me find Wormy." whispered James. "With her soulmate senses. And in our story, she saw us sneaking out and came after us to get us in trouble, all right?"

Sirius nodded. "What happened to him?"

"We don't know." said James. "We think he got attacked by an owl or something."

Before they could talk any further, McGonagall swept out of the hospital wing. "Come with me, all three of you." she said.

Lily followed behind James and Sirius, folding her arms tightly. It occurred to her that this was the first time she'd been in serious trouble in her entire Hogwarts career, even if it was for a good cause.

James, as if sensing her thoughts, looked back and gave her a reassuring smile, which she hesitantly returned.

Finally, they stopped outside of McGonagall's office. The professor held the door open for them. "Sit." she said.

Lily, James, and Sirius took seats in front of her desk. Lily stared down at the floor, wondering what exactly the consequences were for what they'd done.

McGonagall sat across from them, back ramrod straight, lips in a tight line. "Tell me again what happened, from the top."

"I- Sirius and Peter and I were bored." said James. "So I convinced them that we would sneak out and go play Quidditch. But I guess we were playing too roughly and Peter fell off his broom. It was a really stupid idea, Professor, honestly."

"And it wasn't all his idea." Sirius said quickly. "It was really more of mine."

Professor McGonagall turned her frown onto Lily. "And how exactly did you get involved in this?"

Lily did her best to hold McGonagall's gaze. "I was up late reading, Professor, and I happened to look out my window, and I saw them playing. So I snuck out to go get them back inside. I know I should've found a professor, but I was so tired of the four of them breaking the rules all the time, so I just took matters into my own hands. I'm sorry, I lost my temper."

"You saw them." said McGonagall. "So you boys were playing Quidditch outside the Gryffindor windows, on our front lawn?"

"Yes, Professor." said James.

"We like the view." Sirius added.

"And then Mr. Pettigrew fell?"

"That was my fault." Lily said quickly. "I came out and started yelling at them, and I think I surprised him-"

James shook his head. "No, no, no, I had already shoved him by accident-"

"Enough." said McGonagall. "Black and Potter, if this story is as you say it is, I should dock a hundred points from both of you. Same for you, Evans, for not finding a professor. You know we patrol the halls nightly this year. But protecting a friend is-"

"He didn't do it." Sirius's voice rose, and James grabbed his arm. "Remus had nothing to do with it, it wasn't him-"

"I believe you, Black, so sit down and stop shouting at me." said McGonagall. "I know what the consequences would look like for Pettigrew if he had. As I was saying, I should take away fifty points each for doing something so reckless as, er, 4 AM Quidditch on a full moon. Believe me, I will be talking to you, Black, and you, Potter, and Pettigrew about why exactly you were out tonight. But because you are clearly trying to protect each other, and because I am glad that you are all still with us, I will take away only twenty-five points each. And three nights of detention for all of you."

Lily let out a relieved breath, and McGonagall's eyes turned on her. "Black, would you wait outside for a moment?" she asked.

Sirius, seeming barely conscious of what she was saying, stood and loped outside. McGonagall closed the door with a wave of her wand and then leaned forward.

"Have either of you ever considered being Head Students next year?"

Lily and James traded glances, confused.

"Don't look surprised, you have both shown incredible leadership potential, patience, hard work, and a willingness to get along with most of our students. You are my personal choices, although I may be biased, being head of your house. However." Professor McGonagall's gaze hardened. "While courage and grace under pressure are certainly good qualities to have, if you two have any more midnight wanderings, I will be forced to withdraw your names from consideration, and you may lose your current titles of Prefect and Quidditch captain as well. Potter, I expect you to keep Black and Pettigrew from anymore unnecessary midnight Quidditch as well, or you and Black could lose your spots on the team. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Professor." said Lily and James in unison.

"Very well." said Professor McGonagall. "Then take Black back with you to the tower immediately, unless you want to face full consequences for your actions tonight. And I expect to see you three in class in a few hours. Good night."

Lily and James stood, Lily feeling like her legs were made of pudding as she walked out into the hallway. She couldn't even begin to process everything that had just happened.

"Come on." James whispered to Sirius as they entered the hallway, but Sirius shook his head.

"I'm going to sneak back into the hospital wing."

"Are you mad?" James hissed. "They're going to catch you and kick you out again anyways!"

Sirius shook his head again, eyes wild. "I don't care. Just tell her I left before you got out here. I gotta get there before Remus wakes up, or else he'll see Peter and- you know what he'll think."

After a moment, James nodded. "Take this." he whispered, pulling out his Invisibility Cloak and handing it to Sirius. "I'll be by first thing in the morning."

Sirius nodded, pulling the cloak around him, and then disappeared from sight.

"You're not going to go with him?" Lily asked as she and James began walking the other way, back to the tower.

James shook his head. "We can't both fit under there, we'd get caught. And I know how worried Sirius gets, he needs to stay with Moony tonight."

"All right." Lily said as she followed him up the stairs. He was messing up his hair again. "James, they'll both be fine. Madame Pomfrey has patched up worse before."

"I know." said James. "And I know McGonagall's going to make sure no one thinks this was connected to Remus in any way. But you'd worry about Mary or Alice if they were hurt, wouldn't you?"

Lily tried to picture what this situation would be like, were she and Mary and Alice in the Marauder's places. She pictured it for a long moment as they reached the hallway outside Gryffindor tower. Finally, she took James's hand, squeezing it. "I'm so sorry this happened."

"Not your fault." said James, glancing down at their entwined fingers. "But...thank you anyways. For doing all of this with me. I don't think I could've handled this alone."

Lily laughed, dropping his hand as they both climbed through the portrait hole.. "Nonsense. I didn't do anything, I just got yelled at by a centaur."

James took her hand again, helping her up onto her feet. He was looking at her with a bit too much intensity. "No, you- you kept me calm. I just wanted to tear everything apart to find him and you kept us on a more sensible path." He let go of Lily's hand and nervously messed with his hair again.

They were standing very close, now, and suddenly Lily didn't know what to say. She swallowed. "Do you have to keep doing that? Your hair looks fine." She wanted to reach up and stop his hand, to run her own fingers through his hair to straighten it, to tilt his face down and- their faces were so close together, almost closer than they'd been in the closet. The memory burned like Firewhiskey in her veins.

"Really, Lily, thank you." James said, grabbing onto her hands.

Lily took a step back with difficulty, feeling like all the oxygen had left her lungs. The night was suddenly overwhelming, the atmosphere of the Common Room hot and oppressive, and there was a buzzing in her head that would not stop. No, no, no, she had to stop this- "Let go of me, please."

"What-"

"I said let go!" Lily snapped, ripping her hands away. Too late, she realized she'd shouted the words and James was staring at her like she was crazy. Which she was, and a horrible person to boot. But she couldn't do this anymore, not without hurting Mary. They just kept getting too close- every time they got along with each other, they ended up here, smiling too much, standing too close, an inch away from danger.

And honestly, Lily wasn't sure if it was one-sided anymore.

"What's wrong?"

"We can't do this." Lily backed up again. "We can't be friends. There is no truce, all right?"

James took a step forward, reaching for her. "Lily, what the hell?"

"I said let go of me!" said Lily. Her pulse pounded in her ears.

He still wouldn't give up. "What's going on? Why are you-"

Lily ran a hand through her hair, searching for anything she could say to get him to leave her alone. "Is it really such a surprise?" she snapped finally, and his wounded expression cut her as bad as any Diffindo ever had. "After what I saw tonight? The danger you put your friends in every single month- I got detention because of you!"

James's face hardened at once, and he crossed his arms. "Oh, yes, the detention is what's important here."

"And the way you treat Mary!" Lily said. "She's my best friend, James, and you treat her like garbage! And- and I never wanted to be your friend anyways! I just wanted to pretend to get along until Alice and Remus were happy! Well, Alice is and nothing is working with Remus, so the truce is officially over! We are no longer friends, Potter!"

James flinched at the sound of his surname, but his expression was nothing but stony. "If that's actually how you feel, then get out of this room right now before I-"

Lily smiled mockingly, even though she felt like she was being hit by a thousand Cruciatus curses. "You're threatening me, and you wonder why I don't like you?"

A muscle was working in James's jaw now. "And stay away from Peter, too, or I swear to Merlin, I will make your last year of Hogwarts very miserable. He deserves better than- than a heartless, lying-"

"Yes, Potter?" Lily asked.

"Than- than _you_." James spat. "You think you're any better than I am? You're the one who's ignored Peter for months even though he just wants to talk to you, for Ludo bloody Bagman, the wonderful guy got Sirius dumped as soon as it was convenient and only helped set up Frank to get in your pants. You're the one who nearly dated a future Death Eater. Clearly the company you keep is telling. Piss off, Evans." He turned and climbed the stairs, and a moment later, the sound of a door slamming echoed down into the Common Room.

Lily sank into one of the couches,feeling like she'd just been punched in the gut. It was the right thing to do, it was. Clearly, they couldn't be friends without it crossing a line, and she couldn't hurt Mary like that.

But secretly, Lily wondered if she hadn't had more selfish reasons for what she just did. Secretly, she wondered if maybe she was just afraid, that maybe she had just hurt a boy already having one of the worst nights of his life so that she wouldn't get in trouble for lying about her tattoo, or her feelings.

Well. There was nothing she could about it now, except get upstairs and into bed before Mary and Alice woke up to ask where she'd been. She took a deep breath, swallowing down the lump in her throat as best she could, and shakily stood.

Lily didn't get any sleep at all that morning.


	13. Chapter 13

That Saturday night, Lily lay alone in her room, listening to the sounds of James's birthday party downstairs. It had been a rough two days since the fight- the Marauders were refusing to sit with them at meals, which greatly upset Mary, so somehow, in trying to protect Mary, Lily had gotten her hurt even worse. Beyond that, Lily was worried about the Marauders but unable to do anything about it- all four of them, despite being released from the Hospital Wing, were as haggard as she'd ever seen them, and all four of them were clearly angry with her. Which she deserved, honestly, for the things she'd said to James. But she had been so close to kissing him, and she didn't think it was one-sided. It was better this way, wasn't it?

"Hey, Lily." Alice said, knocking on the door. "You wanna come down and join the party?"

Lily rolled onto her back. "No, I- I think I should probably stay up here."

Alice sat down next to her on the bed, fixing her with a stare. "Lily, what's going on?"

"Nothing, Alice, everything is fine-"

"Don't say that!" Alice pounded her fist on the bed. "Would you stop saying that? It's not fine, and whatever you're doing, clearly it's just making things worse for you, and I don't want to pry, but I'm tired of watching you make yourself miserable!"

Lily felt a jolt of pain as she remembered James saying something very similar about Remus and Sirius. "All right, Alice, I'm sorry." Lily sat up. "J- Potter and I had a fight."

"You've had fights before and been fine." said Alice gently.

Lily shook her head, licked her lips. "I think it was just- we've been friends for a while, so-"

"But you should be able to go back to not being friends then, shouldn't you?" asked Alice. "But now he's ignoring you and you're avoiding him, and..."

"All right, all right." Lily sat up, drawing her legs up to her chest, and took a deep breath. "I'll...tell you the truth, but you have to promise not to hate me, okay? And don't tell Mary, I want to be the one to tell her."

Alice took her hand and squeezed it, and Lily took another breath. There was a long pause. "Um...I'm-"

And then Mary walked in. "Hey, ladies. They want you downstairs."

"All right." Alice said, standing and letting go of Lily's hand. "We'll continue this conversation later, okay?"

Lily nodded, feeling dread pool in her stomach at the conversation being delayed further. "Have fun."

"No, they want both of you." said Mary.

"What?" Lily asked.

Mary shrugged. "Yeah. We're playing Truth or Dare."

* * *

When Lily came downstairs (after changing out of her pajamas and into some more party-ready clothes), she was surprised to see that the party was mostly over- all that was left were empty bottles and lots of trash. With a pang, she was thrown back to Remus's birthday two weeks ago, when she and James had been friends and this whole mess had started. She sought out James's eyes, trying to see if he was attempting their revenge on Remus and Sirius, but he wouldn't look at her.

"Party wrapped up early tonight." Lily said.

Mary nodded. "Professor McGonagall came early. Apparently that's what happens when you try and throw two birthday parties this close together."

Lily sat down uneasily in between Mary and Alice, noting as she did so that Marlene, Ludo, and Frank were here, too, with the Marauders. So maybe this wasn't some sort of setup to get revenge on her. They were clearly all a little tipsy and looked to have been playing for a few rounds already- most of them were in some state of disarray, clothing removed or rumpled.

"All right, Lily." said Marlene, taking a sip of her bottle. "Truth or Dare?"

Lily could easily guess what Marlene would ask about if she picked truth. She clenched her jaw. "Dare."

Marlene tapped her nails on her thigh. "Seven minutes in heaven with James."

"Go to hell." Lily said, standing up. "I'm not playing this game."

"Yeah, piss off, Marlene." James stared moodily at his bottle.

"Would you two please just do it?" snapped Mary. "Not the kissing part, but at least go somewhere and talk this out. You're my best friend and my boyfriend, and I'm sick of you fighting like this."

Lily looked around the circle, finally meeting James's eyes. "Fine." she said. "I'm assuming we're going to the boy's dorm?" Without waiting for an answer, she stormed off and up the stairs, uncaring if James was following.

He was, of course, and closed the door behind them as they entered the room. For a moment, they stared at each other, and then Lily flopped down onto the bed. "We're not kissing."

James laughed bitterly. "Oh, I don't think you have to worry about that one."

"And I'm not apologizing." Lily said, chest tightening. "I'll get along with you for Mary's sake, but-"

"Oh, great, let's make another truce." said James. "And then you can lose your mind at me again for no reason."

Lily didn't take the bait, keeping her head turned away from him.

"I didn't even do anything wrong! You've known for a year why the three of us do what we do for Remus, you knew what was going on with me and Mary before, and you didn't care, you still came with me to help find Peter, you stuck up for me in front of McGonagall." His voice was coming closer now. "What the hell happened?"

"I came along for Peter's sake." said Lily. "I stuck up for you because you stuck up for me. That's all. I don't like you, and I have never liked you, this whole time."

James snorted, and the bed shifted as he sat down on it. Lily moved away, but he didn't seem to be nearby "I guess you turned out to be exactly who I thought you were before all this started. Good to know."

"The feeling's mutual."

"Well, then." James said. "Since apparently you care so much about Remus being happy, let's put the rest of this game to good use, if you can stand working with me for that long. And then it'll be done and we won't ever have to talk again."

"Great." said Lily.

"Good."

"Yeah." Lily shifted, scratching at her leg. "No reason for us to talk for the rest of this, then."

"Right." James's tone was hard, and Lily wished more than anything she could take back what she said. It wouldn't be a bad time to tell him the truth- they were alone and likely to remain undisturbed. But the truth would hardly make anything better at this point.

They didn't speak again until the seven minutes were up, and when they came back downstairs, Mary's face fell when she saw that they were still angry.

"Did you guys talk at all?" she asked.

"Some." said Lily. She was ready to be done with this whole night. "Black, truth or dare?"

"Dare, obviously." said Sirius.

Lily nodded. "All right. Kiss Remus for twenty seconds, tongue encouraged."

There were some laughs around the circle and a gasp from Alice. Even James nodded approvingly. Sirius, however, just shrugged. He turned to Remus, grabbed his shoulders, and fulfilled the dare, for ten seconds longer than necessary.

When they finally broke apart, the whole group was chuckling except for Lily and James, and there was no trace of awkwardness between Sirius and Remus, not the way there had been at Remus's birthday party. And then Sirius turned to James, and Lily knew she was in trouble. "Prongs, truth or dare? Or do I even need to ask?"

James's fingers tightened around his bottle. "Dare."

Sirius smiled. "All right." he said, and pointed straight at Lily. "Kiss Lily. Same instructions she gave me."

This time, there was no laughter. "Oh, Sirius, no." said Marlene.

Sirius's grin was almost feral. "What, she can give that dare to other people, but she can't get it?"

"Yeah, I'm going to have to call foul on this one." said Mary. "I wanted them to talk to each other, not get humiliated-"

Sirius shrugged. "Fine. Just ten seconds, then. No tongue. Good?"

James still hadn't moved since he'd gotten the dare. His face was slowly turning red.

Lily scooted backwards, trying to put as much space between her and James as possible. "No, no, no, not good, not good at all. Mary's my friend, I'm not doing this-" She couldn't let this happen, why the hell was Sirius doing this to James for the sake of their stupid competition-

Mary, unbelievably, was nodding. "For the game, good. I'll allow it."

"Mary!" Lily said.

Mary scoffed. "It's just a kiss. It's not like this stupid feud between you two can get any worse." Her tone was nothing but irritation.

"What, Prongs, is this finally the dare that you back down from?" Sirius asked, and James looked as murderous as Lily felt. "You haven't back down from a dare in five years."

"Fuck you." said James.

Mary was frowning now. "So you'll insult her, hex her, prank her, ignore me so you can ignore her, but you won't kiss her for a dare?"

James met Lily's eyes for the first time since Sirius had given him the dare. "I'd rather kiss a basilisk than touch her." he said.

Lily clenched her fists, temper rising. "Are you really that much of a coward?"

Alice's eyebrows knit together. "Maybe we shouldn't do this." She glanced over at Remus for help, but Remus was silent, looking down at the ground.

"I'm not a coward." James stood. "I don't want to kiss someone as awful of a person as you are. And I don't want to kiss someone who supposedly is Wormtail's soulmate, even if I have trouble believing Wormtail could deserve someone as awful as you."

Peter, who had been gaping at the two of them, jumped at the sound of his nickname. He raised a hand. "Um, I don't really care if you do-"

"It's just a bloody dare." Lily said. "Either do it or quit the game."

"Do you want this to happen?" James snapped.

"Of course I don't, Potter, I've made myself very clear on that, but you could be a little less of a baby about it." Lily folded her arms. "It's just a party. Mary and Peter are okay with it. So what's wrong here?"

Even Sirius was silent and shocked now at the venom in their words. Lily's anger thudded in her chest, a pounding of heat against her temple, flushing her cheeks and warming her. And as much as she hated herself for it, there was a bit of anticipation swirling in her stomach, too.

"Fine." said James, but he ground it out through his teeth. Before Lily could so much as raise an eyebrow in response, he was moving, and her mind went completely blank as he knelt before her, placing his hands on her shoulders. She couldn't think, couldn't breathe, frozen in place by his brown eyes, catching hers for a moment with an emotion that wasn't at all anger, and then he kissed her.

Lily felt like she'd just been dropped onto a broomstick in the middle of a windy day. She closed her eyes, kissing back without thinking, matching his roughness with something more gentle and pacifying. Her head was spinning, her mind blank and yet too loud with sensation, her whole body felt absent, somewhere else, like she was off floating in the air rather than sitting here in the Gryffindor Common Room. She didn't want to stop, didn't want to pull away, wanted nothing more than to grab onto James and never let go. But she couldn't.

With great effort, Lily leaned away from James until he finally stopped following her. She did her best to keep her eyes on the ground, but only managed about a second until she had to meet James's confused gaze. She hoped he didn't read too much into hers.

"Get off me." she said, making a big show of wiping her mouth. "Ugh. Just as gross as I thought it would be."

Whatever vulnerability had been on James's face was gone in an instant, replaced by an all-too-familiar stony expression. "Better gross than gross breath."

"Piss off." Lily said, and James flashed her a rude gesture as he crossed back to the other side of the circle.

"Oh, Merlin." Mary groaned. "Would you two just stop?"

"All right, sorry." James said, although he didn't sound particularly sincere. "Hey, Remus, mate?"

Remus shifted back in his seat, looking resigned. "Yeah?"

"Truth or dare, mate."

Remus traded glances with Sirius. "How about...dare."

"All right." James said. "How about seven minutes in heaven for you and Sirius? With kissing this time."

Remus sighed and raised his eyebrows at Sirius. Sirius nodded back at him."You know, Sirius," Remus said, shifting closer to him. "People seem awfully keen to see us snogging."

"I know, Remus." said Sirius, grinning. "Maybe they've just never seen a pair of boyfriends as hot as we are."

In the ensuing silence, Remus shrugged, standing, and offered his hand to Sirius. "I find I'm rather enjoying this game of truth or dare, though. It's nice to be able to kiss you in public."

"Wait-" began Lily.

"What?" shouted James, drowning out most everyone else's reactions.

"Oh, yeah, we're dating." said Remus. A smirk played around his lips, although he was clearly struggling to keep a neutral expression. He looked down at Sirius as Sirius stood. "I guess we forgot to mention that to them."

Sirius wiggled his eyebrows. "Wanna prove it?"

Remus contemplated it for a moment, shrugged, and then bent down, grabbing the front of Sirius's shirt. What followed was a kiss far too graphic for a public space.

"What the hell?" asked Ludo. He and Frank had identical expressions of shock on their faces.

Lily gaped. Mary and Alice were laughing, however, and even Marlene seemed smug. "I knew it!" Marlene said. "I knew you two liked each other!" She leaned back, cackling. "So that's why you were so quick to forgive me! You've already moved on!"

"What the hell?" Ludo said again.

Peter grinned as Sirius and Remus broke apart. "So I get a lot of free Butterbeer for keeping you guys' secret, don't I?"

Sirius waved a hand at him. "We'll talk later."

"Seriously, what the hell?"

"For once, I agree with Bagman." said James. "What- when did this happen? How long have you guys been-"

Remus shrugged, putting an arm around Sirius's shoulder. "Only a few days, officially. We sort of kissed when Sirius was sick, but we didn't decide anything until Friday morning."

Sirius grinned. "There was nothing sort of about that kiss. Remus just got weird and changed the subject really quickly to other things we had planned that week."

"I wasn't sure." said Remus. "I wanted to make sure you were sure, that's all."

"Of course I was!" said Sirius. "I don't care if you're- too tall for your own good!"

"And you didn't tell me?" James asked faintly.

Sirius's grin widened. "Well, for some reason, we figured you and Evans already knew. What, you don't disapprove, do you?"

Mary looked over at Lily, raising an eyebrow. Lily just shook her head.

"No, of course not, I wanted this, I'm really happy for you two!" James ran a hand through his hair. "I just..." He stood and hugged them both. "Oh, I'm so glad that you two figured it out. Wormtail, get in here. Let's make this a Marauder sandwich."

"Oh, Prongs, I never knew you felt this way." Sirius said.

"That's a little weird, Padfoot." said Remus.

Lily, Frank, and Ludo were still gaping, and Mary, Marlene, and Alice were still laughing. "Do you guys need a moment alone?" Mary said.

James made a signal to Peter, and then there were two shrieks. Remus and Sirius rose up in the air, suspended from their ankles. James and Peter pointed their wands up at them, and the group below quickly scrambled away so as to avoid getting hit when Remus and Sirius fell back down.

"Thank you, Wormtail." James said, holding his hand out for a high-five, which Peter provided. "This is for this game of truth or dare, and the closet thing."

"We're very sorry!"

"Let us down!"

James nodded to Peter, and they both performed the countercurse, sending Remus and Sirius to the ground in a heap.

Remus sat up first, pulling his shirt down. "I guess we deserved that one."

"No, don't get up." Sirius said, pulling him back down. "We can kiss in front of them now, remember? They know."

Remus rolled his eyes, smiling at him. "The things I do for you." he said, leaning down to kiss Sirius.

The party broke up pretty quickly after that.

* * *

The next morning, Mary took Lily and Alice firmly by the arms and dragged them over to where the Marauders were sitting. She forced them both down, and took the seat across from James, looking determined.

"Uh...good morning?" James said, looking away from Peter. Remus and Sirius turned from their quiet conversation to watch what was going on.

"Yes, good morning." said Mary. "I am going to sit here, and have a nice breakfast with both my best friend and my boyfriend, and neither of you can do anything about it."

Lily looked over at James, but he was still watching Mary, flushing. "I...I'm sorry?" he said.

"You should be." Mary said matter-of-factly, loading up her plate. "Because you two have been fighting more or less the entire time we've been dating. You finally stop for a few weeks and I think it's over, and then you start up again, only now you're avoiding me when I'm with her and she won't tell me what's wrong and I'm starting to feel like I'm going to have to choose between the two of you, and I know you two have issues with each other, but that is not a fair position to put anyone in." She spiked a bit of a roll with her fork and shoved it in her mouth.

Lily swallowed. "I'm sorry, Mary, I didn't realize it was this bad. We'll try to do better." She glanced towards James again, but he still wasn't looking at her. He looked a bit resigned.

"Actually, could we move down the table a moment?" he said. "I need to talk to you."

Mary, mouth full of bread, nodded, and both of them picked up their plates and walked to a empty section of the table.

There was a long pause after he left. Lily realized that James had likely told the other Marauders exactly what she'd said the night of the full moon. She engaged Alice in conversation, hoping that Mary would return quickly, but Mary stayed talking with James even after the rest of them had left to start their Sunday homework load.

* * *

When Mary returned to the Common Room almost an hour later, she waved at Lily and Alice but didn't say anything as she headed up to the girl's dorm. When she came back with her books, Lily and Alice traded glances.

"Everything okay?" Lily asked.

Mary shrugged, setting her books down. "Everything's fine." She sounded sincere, but she still looked off somehow. "Let's get some homework done, shall we?"

They worked on homework together for most of the morning and into the afternoon. All of them were a little worn out from last night, so there wasn't much conversation beyond their schoolwork, but Lily still felt strangely grateful for their presence. After all the drama of the last few days, it was nice to have few quiet hours, just the three of them- her and Mary and Alice, the way it had been since first year.

At some point, Peter wandered over, leaning against the table. "Hey, Mary, do you know where James is?"

Mary looked up. "Hmm? Um, I haven't seen him since breakfast, actually."

"Oh." Peter stayed where he was, and eventually, Mary looked up again.

"Can I help you with something?"

Peter gestured behind him to where Remus and Sirius were sitting. "Oh, sorry, it's just...they're kissing again. I feel like I'm intruding."

Mary glanced behind him, and snorted. She looked back up at Peter and slowly grinned. Peter grinned back, and then the two were laughing loudly.

Lily and Alice traded glances. "You laugh now, but you and James are just as bad as they are." Lily said, returning to her paper.

Mary's laughter diminished into giggles. "What do you mean? We weren't that bad. Alice?"

Alice shrugged. "No comment."

Mary laughed again, so loudly that Remus and Sirius broke apart to look over at her.

"You're in a good mood today." said Lily.

"I guess I am." Mary said. "I want to go outside again. It's a nice day. We should all go outside."

"I'd love to, but I've got a mountain of homework, and I know I won't get it done out there." Lily said, pushing her hair back from her face.

"And I'm meeting up with Frank in a few minutes." Alice said. She grimaced. "Sorry."

"You want to go for a walk, Peter?" Mary asked, leaning her elbows on the table

"Sure! Should I...should I bring my Transfiguration homework?"

Mary shrugged, gathering up her things. "Yeah, sure. Let's go."

Lily watched them as they left. "You think Mary's acting strange?"

"I don't know, we'll have to talk to her later." said Alice, standing and shoving her books into her bag as well. "I'm sorry to leave you alone, but I really did promise Frank I'd meet him. You'll be fine, won't you?"

Lily smiled, waving her off. "Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine, I've got all this homework to keep me company. Enjoy your lover."

Alice giggled and waved back as she walked away.

And then Lily was alone. Her smile slipped slightly as she turned back to her Potions essay. She had never minded being single too much, for all she could be a bit obsessive over her friend's love lives, but- it was a little disheartening, sometimes, with Alice off with Frank and Mary spending the entire morning with James, and now Remus and Sirius laughing together in one corner.

Suddenly feeling restless, Lily packed up her own things and stood, heading for the hallway. It was too nice of a day to sit in here feeling sorry for herself. She would go join Peter and Mary outside, or maybe just find her own place by the lake where she could still get some work done. She really did have a lot of homework to do, and it would keep her mind off of everything else that had happened the past few days.

Like everything with James. It didn't really seem like there was much she could do about that situation. Their kiss last night had been amazing, but that didn't make up for the horrible things she'd said to him. And even though Lily really would try to stay on neutral terms with him, at least for Mary's sake, she didn't think they could ever really be friends again. She didn't know if her feelings for him would ever really go away enough for it not to be incredibly painful and dangerous for Mary's relationship, and she didn't know if he could ever forgive her for what she'd said, even if she hadn't meant it.

Maybe he had been her soulmate, after all. Despite whatever she used to think of him, despite the fact that he was by no means perfect, it was still pretty clear he was a good guy. But maybe they'd been meant to miss each other like this- maybe she was supposed to have an unrequited soulmate, as some sort of cosmic joke for the way she'd rejected James so much last year.

Well, that wasn't too bad. They didn't have to see each other anymore, and Lily was comfortable living alone, with Mary and Alice in her life. Or, she could marry someone who wasn't her soulmate- just because she had feelings for James didn't mean she'd never love anyone else, did it? They didn't even have to know she'd gotten the tattoo.

She would probably have to tell Peter the truth at some point, though. Bugger.

Still, as she roamed the hallways, Lily couldn't help but think what a comfort it was to know ahead of time that her tattoo was unrequited. No more worry, no more what-ifs, no more anxiety about interfering with Mary's relationship, just accepting her fate. It was good to know ahead of time that she was going to die alone, she thought bitterly, as she rounded a corner-

-and ran straight into James Potter.

James Potter, who was staring at her as though he'd seen a Grim, with a fresh new bandage around his wrist.

And as the silence stretched on between them, Lily knew she should say something, knew it was better to just be honest now...but she couldn't, she just couldn't do this after everything that had happened in the last few days, especially when he and Mary were still dating.

"What are you looking at?" Lily snapped, and stalked past him, leaving James gaping after his newly discovered soulmate.


	14. Chapter 14

Lily didn't know where else to go, so she hid in the library, trying to calm herself down. She didn't want to go out on the grounds and face Mary, knowing what she did now, and she had no intention of going back to the Common Room where James probably was. What had she just done? And what was she going to do now?

So, James probably had her as a soulmate. She couldn't know for sure that it was requited, not until he took off his bandage, but his face when he'd seen her was pretty telling. And...Lily honestly had no idea if he knew that she had him. Yes, she'd been shocked for a moment, but hopefully he wouldn't make any assumptions, would he? Maybe he would just think it was some residual awkwardness from their fight, or maybe he was too shocked himself to notice.

And why did he have the tattoo in the first place? He was still together with Mary, wasn't he? Mary was acting weird, sure, but she didn't seem like someone who'd been broken up with at all. Why had he decided to get the tattoo now?

Lily buried her face in her hands, struggling to keep her thoughts orderly. What was she going to do? There were still so many unknowns about what was going on. Maybe he hadn't even gotten his tattoo, maybe he'd just been injured somehow in the hours between when he and Mary were talking and when she'd just seen him...but no, she recognized the kind of bandage, it was the exact replica of the one that she'd gotten two months ago, and the same type of tattoo she'd seen off and on all year. What was she going to do?

Lily quickly shut down her immediate, selfish reaction. She couldn't tell him, because Mary was one of her best friends, and Mary was dating him. And even if Mary wasn't, James hated Lily right now after that fight they'd had. But...what if she told Mary? Lily's heart picked up at the thought of finally letting someone know what was going on. It would definitely be better for Mary to find out from Lily rather than James, and Mary would probably find out anyways, unless James hid his tattoo. But no, even then, Mary lived with Lily, she'd notice the name on Lily's list eventually.

The name on her wrist. Lily cautiously slid back one sleeve, just to check. She knew it was coming, and yet somehow it was still a shock to see it there- J _ames Potter_ , written in neat, impersonal script. So it hadn't been some sort of dream. James had his tattoo, and she'd gotten his name.

Lily groaned, putting her head down on the table. This was all such a mess. She really should've been trying to figure out what to do weeks ago, back when she first got the tattoo, but instead she'd gotten distracted, with Ludo, Frank and Alice, Remus and Sirius, and everything else.

Like James. Two months ago, she'd been blissfully ignorant of his better qualities. She'd despised him, and thought that was as bad as it could ever be between them. And then, somehow, things had gotten worse. Now, he hated her again, but she...didn't hate him. At all.

What was she going to say about that if that came up while she was talking to Mary?

As difficult as it was, Lily knew the answer right away. No more lying. She'd messed up enough by not telling Mary already, she would face the consequences.

With that thought in mind, Lily rather shakily stood back up. The thought of telling Mary what was going on was terrifying, but she had to do it, before James took off his bandage or before Mary caught sight of Lily's wrist and found out anyways.

That was the first thing she had to do...tell Mary, and probably Alice while she was at it. After that...well, she could cross that bridge when she came to it.

* * *

Lily wanted nothing more than for the walk back to Gryffindor tower to last forever, but unfortunately, she reached the Common Room all too soon. James, Sirius, and Remus were over in one corner, and at first glance, everything appeared to be fine, but James seemed more subdued than usual and Remus and Sirius looked a little worried. Lily glanced back down at the ground, not wanting them to catch her staring.

Mary and Peter were standing by Mary's usual table, talking animatedly. When Mary spotted Lily, however, she waved goodbye to Peter and walked over to Lily. "Um, hey, Lily, can we talk?"

"Yes, of course." Lily said. "I was- I was just about to come find you, I swear-" But James still had his bandage on, how could Mary already know? Unless- unless James already told Mary? But if he did, what would happen to their relationship? As she followed Mary up to their room, she blurted out, "What's going on with you and James?"

"Why do you ask that?" Mary said, opening the door and letting Lily in.

Lily smoothed the front of her skirt nervously as she sat down on her bed. "I- I just thought- he got the tattoo-"

Mary snorted, sitting down across from her. "Oh, yeah, that. I can't believe he got it so quickly. Wonder who he got?"

"Wait, what?"

"Oh, right." Mary looked down at the bed, picking at the bedspread. "We, well, we broke up this morning. It was completely mutual. I think we were both sick of each other."

"Oh, no." Lily said. "Oh, no, Mary, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

Mary shrugged. "Yeah, I'm fine, I just wasn't ready to tell you guys yet, sorry. I'm honestly a little relieved. And I think he is, too, judging by how quickly he went out and got his tattoo." She looked up at Lily, taking in a breath. "Which- sort of leads into something I wanted to ask you about-"

"Can I say something first?" Lily said quickly. "Sorry, I really am, but I've just- I've got to tell you something."

Mary folded her arms. "Uh, sure, if you want to."

Lily nodded, looking down at her lap. "All right. Um." She closed her eyes, breathing deeply, and then pushed back her sleeve and thrust her wrist at Mary.

"Lily, what..." and then Mary gasped, hands tightening on Lily's wrist. "What is this?"

"Uh..." Lily couldn't discern Mary's tone, and it was worrying her.

Mary laughed, but there was a hard note in it. "Were you just waiting for us to call it before you told me?"

"No, of course not! I just- wanted you to know." Lily took her wrist back, balling her hands into fists. "I know this is the worst possible time, Mary, I'm sorry, I was- hoping it would be unrequited?"

Mary wasn't listening, instead standing up and pacing. "When did you find out about this?"

"Um, my birthday."

Mary groaned. "And you didn't tell me?"

"I'm so sorry!" Lily said, standing. "I- I didn't want to hurt you, I didn't want to ruin anything between you and James-"

"Really?" Mary asked. "You don't think maybe I could've used a heads up that James and I weren't going to work out?"

"What? Mary, I just wanted you to be happy-"

"You know what would've made me happy?" Mary said. "Not wasting all this time dating someone with a different soulmate. Breaking up with him as soon as you found out instead of going through all of this heartbreak, on Valentine's Day, and these past few weeks...Merlin, Lily, is this why you and him were spending all that time together?"

"No, of course not!" Lily said, mouth open. She ran a shaky hand through her hair. "Nothing ever happened, I promise. We were just trying to set up Frank and Alice, and Remus and Sirius-"

"Do you like him, though?"

Lily wished she could curl up in a ball and die on the spot. She nodded.

Mary was trembling now. "Shit, Lily." She turned around, shaking her head. "Honestly, it's not even about that. I'm relieved James and I are done, and I know you'd never do that to me. I wish you all the best with his mess. But you lied to me for months about it. If I'd known something like this while you and Ludo were dating, I would've told you."

Lily twisted her fingers together. "I was just trying to-"

"I don't want to hear what you were trying to do!" Mary snapped. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "What about Peter? Did you even think about how he feels?"

"I'm so sorry, I-"

"Let me talk." Mary said, voice shaking. "Does Alice know?"

Lily shook her head.

"Does he?"

Lily shook her head again. "You're the first one I've told."

"Whoop de fucking do." Mary muttered. She pushed past Lily, heading for the door. "I'm not going to tell anyone. That's your responsibility. But don't talk to me for a while, all right? I need to think this through."

"Mary, please-" Lily began, reaching for her.

"Save it." Mary snapped, and then she was gone.

* * *

Alice found Lily alone in the bedroom half an hour later. "Hey, Lily, do you know why Mary's-" she began, and then she was at Lily's side, sitting down next to her. "Oh, no, Lily, are you feeling okay?"

Lily shook her head."It's my fault that Mary's upset." she said quietly.

Alice shook her head, wrapping her arm around Lily. "Oh, no, I'm sure whatever's happened isn't..." Her words faded as Lily held out her wrist. "Oh, Lily."

"I'm so sorry." Lily said, leaning into Alice. "I've known since my birthday. I should've told you guys, or told Mary at least so she'd know, but I didn't want to break them up. And now they're broken up anyways, and Mary's upset, and I lied to you guys for no reason."

Alice squeezed Lily's shoulders. "Oh, Lily." she repeated.

Lily stared at the writing on her wrist. "You're not going to say it's not my fault, are you?"

Alice took a moment to answer. "It...wasn't the best decision." she said. "And it wasn't the best time for her to find out, right after the breakup. But you were trying to do the right thing. And she would've been upset no matter when you told her."

"Not if I never lied to her." Lily said. "At least, not as much." She rubbed at her eyes. "If I'd just told you guys the first day instead of-"

"Well, you didn't." said Alice. "And there's nothing you can do about that now. Besides, this only involves you, Mary, and James, not me. And maybe Peter, too. I understand why you didn't tell us, and honestly, I might've done the same thing." She looked down. "Especially if I liked my friend's boyfriend."

Lily looked up. "How did you-"

Alice rubbed Lily's back. "I'm not blind. I don't get involved with you two's love lives like you do mine, but I can tell when you two fancy someone. I think you and Mary are both just a bit mixed up right now."

Lily sniffed. "Sorry about that. I just wanted you and Frank together."

"Yeah, and I'm glad you did, because otherwise I don't think we would be." said Alice. "But you and Mary need to talk this out, all right? You two can't let this ruin your friendship, you're both too good of friends for that. And you should talk to James, too."

Lily shook her head. "I'm not- I'm not going to tell him. At least, not until things are all right with Mary."

"All right, that's fair." Alice nodded.. "And what are you going to do then?"

Lily sniffled again, wiping at her cheeks. "I don't know. I honestly have no idea. I said some horrible things to him to push him away, and, well, it worked." She laughed.

"Well, you two should work it out, too, at some point, all right?" Alice squeezed her shoulder again.

Lily nodded. "All right. Thank you, Alice, for not being too mad at me."

"I don't think I have any right to be." said Alice. "And I...I don't think Mary's too mad, either, I think she's shocked, and upset, and already dealing with a lot today. Just, give her some time to cool off, and then apologize. You two will be fine. You're not going to lose each other over something as silly as a boy."

"Thank you." Lily said.

"Of course." said Alice. "It'll be fine, all right?" Lily nodded, and Alice stood. "Now, I'm going to go find Mary and make sure she's okay. You'll be all right, won't you?"

Lily nodded, and Alice left her staring down at the floor, contemplating just how much of a mess she'd made out of everything

* * *

Much to Lily's surprise, James didn't even try to cover up his tattoo, and over the next few days, the news spread quickly around the school that James Potter had Lily Evans as his soulmate. Since most people's soulmates were names they didn't recognize, and since James and Lily were both fairly well-known around the school, this briefly turned into a scandal, and Lily received far too many nosy questions. She ended up wearing more long sleeves than ever, and a thick bracelet to cover it up when that wasn't enough. She supposed that word must not have gotten around about her and Peter, mostly because they hadn't ever really acted like a couple.

In the meantime, between warding off nosy questions and avoiding the Marauders, Lily threw herself into her studies. Mary was still angry with her, and Alice didn't seem to know what to do- she alternated sitting with either of them at meals and during breaks until Lily started hiding in the library to give Alice some time for herself and Frank. Besides, it was nice to be away from the world a while. Too many people were trying to butt into her business.

Like Ludo Bagman, unsurprisingly. They'd been coping with the awkwardness for a few weeks by switching Herbology partners- Marlene with Ludo, Mary with Lily- but now that Mary and Lily were fighting, Mary and Marlene were partners again, leaving Lily alone with Ludo. Alice volunteered to switch, but Lily didn't want to mess up Frank and Alice, too.

"So." Ludo said as soon as she sat down.

"So." said Lily. "Partners again."

He nodded. "Seems to be."

They worked in silence for the first half of class, only speaking when they needed to communicate for the replanting that they were working on. Alice looked up at them worriedly from time to time, but she and Frank carried on their usual conversation.

Finally, Ludo broke the silence. "So, out of curiosity-"

Lily grit her teeth. "Ludo, please don't."

"Sorry." said Ludo. "It's just- people are wondering, that's all."

"Well, maybe it's none of people's business." Lily said, putting her next bulb in the soil a little too violently.

"I know it's none of my business." said Ludo quietly. "I just- Marley was wondering-"

Lily gave him a dirty look. "What was Marley wondering? You two know who my soulmate is."

"I know, she wasn't saying anything directly, but..." He frowned. "It's just...the big bracelet and the long sleeves...and you and Potter did only start that whole Frank and Alice thing after your birthday-"

"Not everything I do is because of my tattoo. Maybe I just want some privacy." Lily hissed. "Just because you put what your tattoo says in front of everyone else's feelings-"

"Did your way turn out any better?" asked Ludo.

Lily pressed her lips together. "I don't think we should talk anymore."

"If you like." said Ludo. "But you never denied anything."

Lily didn't give him the satisfaction of a response.

* * *

Later that day, Marlene herself found Lily in the library during the normal lunch period, and sat down without waiting for an invitation. "Merlin, is there where you've been lately?"

Lily looked up from the essay she'd been halfheartedly writing and frowned. "Hello."

"Don't act so excited." said Marlene. "I know I'm the last person you want to talk to right now." She tapped her chin. "Well, second-to-last."

"Third." Lily said, returning to her essay. "Your boyfriend's been asking a lot of questions."

"Right." Marlene said, resting her elbows on her table. "That's sort of what I wanted to talk about, actually."

Lily put her quill down, rubbing her forehead. "I'm not going to show you my tattoo,."

"I know." said Marlene. "I don't need to see it. I know who you have."

Lily met Marlene's eyes, frowning. "If you're saying what I think you're saying-"

"It's obvious." said Marlene, flipping her hair back. "It takes a lot for you and Mary to argue, and this is a lot. And don't forget, I've had a front seat to the James-and-Lily show before. I've seen how you two act. Honestly, I'm not surprised at all."

"Why would you say that?" Lily asked. "All you've ever seen us do is fight."

Marlene quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah, but you're the only two who can handle the other when one of you is being obnoxious. No offense. And also, I've seen you two work as a team, too, remember? You're surprisingly good together even when you're bickering."

"It doesn't matter." said Lily. "I'm not doing anything until Mary is all right with what's going on. Why are you talking to me about this, anyways?"

"Because," Marlene said, raising her shoulders. "I figure I'm the best one to do it." She began counting off her fingers. "Mary's my cousin, I've been friends with James for years now, oh, and, also, in case you forgot, I was pretty much in your position a month ago." She pursed her lips. "And someone has to do something before Alice loses her mind."

"Alice?" Lily asked.

Marlene shook her head. "You're not trying to, but you're both avoiding her. Mary's spending all her time on the Quidditch pitch, in case you haven't noticed because you're too busy spending all your time here. So. Since Alice has been my friend for nearly as long as Mary has been my cousin, I'm here to help you work this out."

Lily eyed her, playing with her quill. "Remember when you would've rejoiced that I was fighting with them?"

Marlene looked annoyed. "Yeah, well, that was three years ago. You know, you've got a problem with holding grudges." Lily stiffened. "No, don't try to deny it. You've had one against me for six years, you keep biting Ludo's head off, and the only reason you forgave Remus and James for being Marauders is because you were forced to spend time with them."

"So what?" Lily said.

Marlene steepled her fingers, examining Lily. "So you assume everyone else is the same way. You don't think Mary or James could ever forgive you for what you've done because you have problems forgiving Ludo, or me, or Sirius, or anyone. You don't realize that if you just sincerely apologized and explained to either of them and tried to make it up, they might be a whole lot more willing to forgive you than you think."

"I did try." said Lily. "I apologized to Mary several times-"

"Yeah, after you told her on the day she broke up with James that he was your soulmate." said Marlene. "Really, wonderful timing. I can't imagine why she'd be upset."

Lily's mouth twisted. "Where did you hear all that?"

Marlene shrugged one shoulder. "Some things Mary and Alice hinted at when I talked to them about all this. Mary misses you, you know." She stood. "I know I'm not your favorite person, but please at least consider what I've said, all right?"

Lily nodded. "Um...I guess I should thank you."

"Yeah, you should." Marlene said. "And seriously, Mary and Alice are my friends, too, please don't hurt them so we don't have another reason for this silly feud of ours." She wiggled her fingers at Lily and swept out.

* * *

Marlene's words buzzed around Lily's head over the next few days. Things were slightly better than they had been- Mary was still avoiding Lily, but Lily made an effort to spend more time with Alice. She could tell it was still a strain on Alice to stay friends with both of them while they were fighting, but Mary had asked for some space, and Lily wanted to give her that. She hoped Alice wasn't being too hurt by it, though. And it did get a little lonely sometimes. Lily missed Mary, and missed spending time together as a group. Every night they spent sleeping in the same room was even more awkward than the night before.

Marlene wasn't wrong, not in the slightest. Lily did have a habit of holding grudges. Some of them were maybe a little justified, but some of them she could probably do without. Despite all the enmity that had grown between Lily and Petunia throughout the years, Lily would still be crushed if anything happened to her, and since these were such dangerous times, it probably wouldn't be too good to let things fester between them. Maybe she could try and get things back to cordial eventually.

And Ludo and Marlene, too. Maybe she had overreacted a bit to what Ludo had done. Worse, maybe she'd assumed wrongly about him. She'd thought he was pulling out of matchmaking because she'd rejected him, but maybe it really was about Frank, and her snapping at him had only served to up the enmity between them. Sure, he was a little too assuming for Lily's sake- assuming she had him as a soulmate, assuming everything she did was about romance, the way he'd always been when they dated and he'd tried too hard to be the macho man- but they'd been good friends for years before they went out, so it might be worth it to try and be friends again. And Marlene. Lily wasn't sure if they could manage to put aside their differences that easily- they had pretty different personalities. But Mary had a pretty strong personality, too, and if she and Marlene could manage to get along so well, then maybe Lily and Marlene could, too.

Who else did she owe an apology to? Mary and James were obvious answers, but Lily wasn't sure if she was ready for that yet. She didn't want to bother Mary, and she wasn't sure yet how to talk to James without revealing things that she should wait to discuss with Mary. She decided to start with a smaller, but equally important apology.

Her patrols with Remus had been very quiet since she'd had the fight with James. He wasn't completely ignoring her, but their conversations had an air of forced politeness. It occurred to Lily that James wasn't the only one she'd insulted with the horrible things she'd said to him- she'd also implied that him letting his friends near Remus was something awful. Which was really terrible, now that Lily thought about it. Yes, Remus definitely deserved an apology.

"Remus..." Lily said after a short silence, and Remus tensed at her tone. "Um. I- I didn't mean those things I said to James."

"I'm not getting involved in this again." Remus said, crossing his arms. He was still walking ahead of Lily, so she couldn't see his face, but his tone was detached.

"No, really, I swear I don't think-"

"Some of the things you said weren't exactly false."

Lily's mouth fell open. "No, no, Remus, that's not at all true, I didn't mean it-"

"Then why did you say it to James?" Remus asked, looking back at her.

Lily faltered. She could tell him the truth, but she wasn't sure if he would keep it a secret. "I, um..."

Remus shook his head, turning away again. "It doesn't matter. You should be apologizing to him, not me."

"I should be apologizing to both of you, you mean. Could you-" Lily closed her eyes. She had no right to ask him for a favor right now, but she needed to, to make things right. Maybe then she'd be able to properly explain her words to Remus so he wouldn't seem so defeated. "Could you tell him that I want to talk to him?"

After a moment, Remus nodded. "And you've heard about his tattoo, haven't you?"

"Yeah." said Lily. "Yeah, I have." Unconsciously, she reached to rub her own wrist. She would just have to avoid that topic at all costs, and avoid talking about her own feelings. It would be difficult to come up with a good excuse for why she'd said those things, especially since she didn't want to lie anymore, but she would have to, unless Mary approached her first. Judging by the slump in Remus's shoulders, this was not something that could wait a while longer.

Neither of them said another word for the rest of patrol.

* * *

While Lily waited for James or Mary to want to talk, she decided to try and mend things with a few other people. She sent a polite letter to Petunia sincerely trying to have a conversation, and even approached Marlene in the hallway one day. Marlene assured her that 'I absolutely do not care what you think of me', but Lily noticed that she made more of an effort to acknowledge her in the hallway afterwards, and even spent some time with Lily, Alice, and Frank. And Marlene really wasn't half as bad as Lily thought she was- she was caustic, yes, and a bit too honest, but she was also incredibly protective of Frank and Alice, and could be hilarious when she was in the right mood.

And then, after neither James nor Mary approached her over the weekend, she decided to go ahead and have another conversation she'd been dreading. With some trepidation, she sat down next to Ludo in the next Herbology class.

He raised an eyebrow at her after the teacher finished explaining that day's assignment- sketching different leaves to identify their properties. "Figured you'd try to switch with Frank today."

Lily shrugged. "Yeah, well...I don't want to spoil Alice's time with him."

Ludo grunted, turning back to the the plants they were sketching. Lily pulled out her parchment and quill as well, trying to think of a way to start the conversation.

"I-" she began. Ludo didn't look up. "I think I may have overreacted a bit."

"Oh, you do, do you?" Ludo asked.

"Excuse me?" Lily said, sitting up straight.

"I made a perfectly reasonable assumption, and you attacked me over it for weeks-"

Lily's mouth fell open. "I told you, I was just sick of people pressuring me about my tattoo!"

Ludo lowered his voice, violently drawing a line for a stem. "But that didn't mean you had to assume I was only helping Frank to try and shag you. Really, Lily, is that all you think of me?"

"I- I'm sorry, I guess." Lily said, irritation rising. "But some of the things you said-"

Ludo snorted and tilted his body away from Lily, ending the conversation.

* * *

The final straw for Lily's crusade to be a better person came when Petunia sent a reply. Petunia clearly had not appreciated the letter, and had appreciated even less that it came on Alice's borrowed owl. Petunia wanted to know what Lily was playing at, and if she was trying to make fun of her, and why she was bragging so much about her freak school anyways. Petunia's reply was short, terse, and made Lily never want to apologize to anyone again. It also made her terrified of trying to talk to James and Mary, especially with how her attempts with Ludo and Remus had gone. She almost wanted to give the whole thing up, if it weren't for the fact that she really did miss Mary, and, strangely, James. And she had hurt them both, they both deserved something for that.

Still, it was entirely fitting that, the moment she wanted to speak to him least would be the moment she ran into James Potter.

And that was probably the most accurate description she could come up with- Lily was walking back to the Common Room, still lost in thought about her sister's reply, when she barreled straight into him.

She looked up, paled as she realized who it was, and ducked her head, walking past him.

"Wait." he said, catching her wrist, and Lily turned around. He didn't seem upset or hostile, just tired. "Moony said you wanted to talk."

Lily swallowed, anxiety making her unsteady. "Um- do you want to go to an empty classroom or-"

Silently, James nodded, and let go of her. It occurred to Lily as she followed him to the classroom that she had just gotten very lucky- he hadn't grabbed her wrist with her bracelet cuff on it, he hadn't accidentally pulled it off. She tugged her sleeve down to cover it further as he opened the door and waved her in.

Lily sat down at one of the student desks again, staring at her hands and trying to think of what to say. After a moment, James sat down across from her, turning his seat around to face her, and waited.

Best to start with the truth. "Um." Lily rubbed her hands back and forth nervously. "I- I didn't mean the things I said. Any of them. I promise I didn't. I would never-" Lily took a breath. "I would never think something like that about Remus, for example." She looked up, but James's expression was impassive.

"Remus told me you said that." said James. "But why the hell would you say them, then?"

Lily looked down again, closing her eyes. "I...I am so sorry." Tell him the partial truth. Although that's what led everyone to believe her and Peter were soulmates, wasn't it? But it wasn't like she could say anything else without talking to Mary first. "I got freaked out." she said at last, looking up at him. "Remember how I said I would stop playing Remus and Sirius's matchmaking game if it got too weird? Well, I should've stopped about when they made me walk in on you changing." She laughed nervously, but James's face didn't change.

"That doesn't explain..." he began.

Lily nodded. "I know, I know. Um. I just got worried about what Mary would think, too, I was worried that we were getting too close, um, because of Remus and Sirius. I'm sorry. So, I may have decided that the best possible option was to make us not friends again?"

James passed a hand over his face. "As opposed to...talking to me about it?"

"Yes?" Lily tried.

James began, unbelievably, laughing. Lily gaped at him.

"Sorry." he said, covering his mouth. "Sorry. That's- that's the most Lily Evans thing I've ever heard."

"What do you mean by that?" Lily asked, although she was so relieved to see him smiling at her again that she couldn't keep the corners of her mouth from turning up.

"I don't know, you're always trying to help people. Always thinking you know what's best for everyone else."

"Hey, that's not-" The events of the past two months flickered by in her mind. "Okay, maybe I do go overboard a little."

James snorted, breaking down into another fit of laughter.

"James!" Lily said.

"Sorry." James said. "I guess I'm just relieved that you don't actually hate me."

"So am I." Lily said quietly.

James met her eyes for a moment before looking away, some of the merriment draining out of his frame. "That still doesn't make what you said okay, though." he said. "We just got Moony to accept what we do for him this year, and now he's feeling guilty all over again."

Lily frowned. "I am so sorry about that, that really was out of line. I can try and talk to him-"

James shook his head. "No, no, we've got more experience with that, let us take care of it."

"Right." Lily said, looking down again. Guilt churned in her gut. "Sorry."

"Really, you could've just said something." James said. "It was getting a little weird by then. Although I guess it worked, at least?"

"Yeah." Lily smiled. "I guess it's just...we've never really been friends, before. It was kind of freaking me out."

James laughed a little. "Yeah, no, I get that. And for the record, I'm sorry about the things I said." He reached back to rub his hair, and Lily's heart pounded as the neat handwriting on his wrist came into view. "Truce again?"

"Hmm?" Lily asked, eyes on his wrist. She realized he was watching her and tore her eyes away. "Um- yeah, truce again." She smiled at him. "Maybe this one will actually last."

"Yeah." said James, but his chuckle was a bit hollow as he lowered his arm. "Anything else you want to talk about?"

Lily's eyes flicked to his wrist again, and she swallowed. "No." she said. "But thank you, James, really. I'm so sorry." She looked down, twisting her fingers together.

"Lily." said James, placing a hand on the desk in between them. "It's fine. Not like you've never had to forgive me for anything."

Lily looked up, placing her hand over his and squeezing it. She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, James pulled away.

He stood, grinning again. "Well. I can talk to Peter then, and get you two all set up." His tone was perfectly casual as he backed towards the door.

Oh, she did not deserve him. "James." she began, standing up.

He was already at the door. "Good to have this worked out. Talk to you later!" James waved and was gone.

Lily sat back down, letting out a long sigh. On the plus side, one person had forgiven her. On the minus side, everything was still so screwed up.

Well. Things were better than they were yesterday, at least. And despite the looming problems of Mary, Peter, and her tattoo, Lily felt actually felt pretty happy as she walked out.


	15. Chapter 15

James apparently told the Marauders about Lily's apology, because during their next patrol, Remus was much friendlier to Lily than before. She was glad for the change- it finally gave her a chance to ask about something she'd been curious about for a while.

"So." she said. "You and Sirius."

Remus sighed, although he was smiling. "Yes. We are dating. I suppose some of the credit for that goes to you."

Lily shrugged. "Hey, it was James's idea to get you two together in the first place."

"Right." Remus shook his head. "Honestly, I was a little slow on the uptake with that whole thing because I didn't think you two could manage to work together that well."

"We decided to bury the hatchet." said Lily. "And nice dodging the question."

"I wasn't aware there was a question."

"Well, there was." Lily stopped to peer down a corridor before continuing. "When exactly did you and Black get together? And why didn't you tell James or I?"

Remus grinned. "We told you, at the party."

"You barely said anything!"

"All right, all right." Remus sighed again. "Well, Prongs was making me take care of him while he was sick, you know that much, and I guess you two did your job well enough to make things weird. And, well, the week before, I overheard you and James talking in the Common Room after patrol, and you mentioned a few things about Sirius and I- why are you smiling like that? What?"

Lily wiped the smile off of her face and cleared her throat. "Never mind. Go on."

Remus eyed her. "Was that part of the plan, too?"

"Of course not!" Lily said. "How could we ever stage something that elaborate?"

Remus shook his head. "Well, anyways, that's about it. We were spending a lot of time together, and weren't talking about any of it, and- when Sirius gets sick, he's kind of..." He stared into space, as if searching for the right word. "I don't want to say cute, because I think he would hurt me for saying it, and I don't know if anyone else would agree."

"So you think your boyfriend's cute." Lily said. Remus gave her a look. "Sorry, sorry, I'll stop gloating. Go on."

"That's the story." Remus said. "I listened to a very stupid impulse and kissed him, and then we didn't really talk about it until the morning I ended up in the Hospital Wing. We waited to tell you because we wanted revenge. Nothing really to it."

""So that's why you locked us in the closet. You blamed us for you guys kissing."

"We weren't wrong, were we?" asked Remus. He scratched his nose. "I should be sorrier about Truth or Dare, I suppose, but considering you actually got the two of us together, I think that was an adequate response."

"Yeah, that was...something." said Lily, biting her lip. She didn't want to think too hard about that particular night.

"Were you surprised?" Remus asked suddenly. "When you found out James had you?"

"Of course I was. Why?"

"Just curious. How did you find out?" Remus's tone was carefully neutral.

Lily shifted uneasily. "Um, Alice heard from someone else, I think. Er, I mean, I know she did. She was the one who told me."

"Mmhmm." said Remus. "And you've been hiding your tattoo since then out of respect for him?"

Remus Lupin was far, far too observant for his own good. Lily drummed her fingers against her elbows. "More like I don't want people being nosy about it, you know? Ever since he got it I've had all these people trying to see mine, I'd just rather they not get the satisfaction."

"Right, of course." said Remus. "Although you did tell people it was Peter."

Lily opened her mouth for a moment, struggling to come up with an answer. "Well, clearly, since they're asking about James, they didn't get the memo, did they? **"**

"No, no, I was just wondering." said Remus, pulling his robes more tightly around him. "Come on, let's go back."

* * *

The surprises continued when, the next day, Peter sat down next to her and Alice while they were playing Wizard's chess.

"Hi." he said.

"Hi, Peter." Lily looked up from the game, smiling. "What can I do for you?"

Peter leaned forward. "Well, I, uh, actually had, um, a question for you. Since you're friends with us again."

Lily had to chuckle at the way he had forgiven her mostly because James had. "Yeah?"

"Well..." He chewed his lip. "Since we're- not really dating right now, is it all right if I were to...date someone else?"

Lily blinked. "Yeah, of course. That's fine."

Peter's smile was immediate and genuine as he stood. "Great. Thanks. See you later."

"And Peter-"

Peter turned back expectantly, and Lily faltered. Peter deserved the truth, but there was no way he wouldn't tell James. "Um- good luck. I'm sorry things ended up this way."

Peter shrugged. "If it helps, I don't really think you were mine." He hurried out of the Common Room, leaving Lily to exchange bemused glances with Alice.

Well, that meant neither of them felt obligated to spend time with each other, so really, that was one problem solved. She was a little confused, though- what exactly had he meant with his last comment?

* * *

Sirius didn't approach her until later, when she was sitting alone, working on homework. In fact, Lily didn't even realize he was there until he cleared his throat. She looked up- he was standing in front of her, arms crossed.

"Hello, Black." she said. "Can I help you with something?"

"Evans." Sirius slid down across from her. "We need to-"

He was interrupted by the sound of a commotion near the portrait hole, where Mary and Peter having an intense discussion. The commotion had apparently come from her dropping her bag and him helping her pick her things up.

"Lily." Sirius repeated.

Lily blinked and looked back at him. "Sorry, what is it?"

A decidedly hostile expression overtook his face. "Let me just get one thing clear." he said. "I'm grateful for what you tried to do for Remus and I. Most of it." Lily opened her mouth to respond, and he held up a finger. "But if you ever hurt Prongs or Moony like that again, I know more jinxes and hexes than you'd ever imagine. They might have forgiven you, but I'm still watching, understand?"

Lily had only heard rumors of Sirius's family connections, but she thought he'd never seemed more like them than in this moment. Gone was his usual goofy, carefree air, replaced with an sneering arrogance that left her no doubts that he had the kind of power he was talking about.

"-can't!" Mary said, much louder than she probably intended. Lily and Sirius both turned to look. "It's not- I didn't think-"

Peter said something in response, too quiet for Lily to hear.

Mary shook her head. **"** No, that's not what I- **"** She looked up, realizing just how much of the Common Room was staring at her and Peter, and turned back to him, lowering her voice. After a moment, Peter nodded, handed her the last of her books, and left again through the portrait hole. Mary went the opposite way, hurrying up the stairs to the girl's dorm.

Sirius's eyebrows were contracting as he turned back to Lily. "Are we clear?"

She nodded. "We're clear."

"Great." said Sirius, clapping his hands together with a bright smile, and then he stood, walking after Peter through the portrait hole.

* * *

And then, finally, came the last surprise of the week- when Alice sat down next to Lily at dinner that day, Mary sat with her.

Lily immediately picked up her plate to leave. Maybe Mary just wanted some time with Alice?

"Oi, Lily." Mary said. "Where are you going?"

Lily turned around **,** smile blooming on her face **.** "Um. Nowhere?"

"That's right." Mary tapped Lily's spot on the table. "You're sitting right here, with Alice and I."

Lily grinned as she sat back down. "Um. What-"

"Later." said Alice.

Mary shrugged, sporting her own smile. "Yeah, Alice wants us to have one normal dinner before we talk about it."

"I've missed our normal dinners." said Alice. "It's been such a long time."

"Only two weeks." said Lily.

Mary nodded. "If that."

Alice grinned at them both. "Who cares?"

"Don't get sappy on us." said Mary. "What, has being in love made you overemotional this quickly?"

"Shut up." said Alice, but she was still smiling. "That's not your business."

"I don't hear a denial!" singsonged Lily.

Alice ducked her head, blushing. **"** Guys!"

"Sorry, but we're both single ladies now." Mary said, loading up her plate. "We have to get our entertainment somehow. Isn't that right, Lily?"

Lily snorted. "Oh, yeah. You guys' boyfriends are all I've had to live on since Ludo." She froze, meeting Mary's eyes. "Er- I didn't mean-"

Mary waved her off. "Later, remember?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah. Later." She did her best to put the looming thought of later out of her mind as she, Mary, and Alice enjoyed their first group dinner in weeks.

* * *

'Later' turned out to be that night, in their dorm. Mary sat down across from Lily, just like she had a few weeks ago in very different circumstances, and Alice did her best to pretend not to be eavesdropping from the bathroom.

"All right." said Mary, running a hand through her hair and looking at the ground.

"Okay." Lily said, rubbing her hands together.

"Well. Um." Mary looked up at her. "I think I owe you an apology."

Immediately, Lily shook her head. "No, no, not at all, I'm sorry. I was the one who should've said something ahead of time, I was the one fancying your boyfriend-"

"Yeah, about that." Mary pinched the bridge of her nose. "Um. Turns out, I'm really no better about that."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

"Well." Mary closed her eyes. "Peter Pettigrew asked me out today."

Lily furrowed her brow, remember the commotion they'd witnessed earlier. "Wait, what?"

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I-"

Lily shook her head. "No, no, no, you know I never liked him, don't be sorry, I'm just surprised, is all. Is that why you guys were arguing?"

"Yeah, because I told him no, because of you."

"But he's not my soulmate, I don't-"

"I..." Mary ran a hand through her hair again. "I sort of fancied him? Before I found out he wasn't your soulmate."

"What?" Lily asked, and then images from the past few months flickered through her mind, of Mary and Peter, always together, laughing at each other's jokes, working on homework together, going for a walk after the breakup, kissing during Spin the Bottle as enthusiastically as Remus and Sirius (and how had she missed that)- "Oh my God, are you serious?"

Mary nodded, and Lily began laughing. "Wait, so are you telling me we both managed to fall for each other's boyfriends?"

"Don't laugh, Lily, this was bad!" Mary said. "I did a bad thing! That was part of the reason James and I started falling apart, and part of the reason I lashed out at you so badly, because I felt so guilty over it! I'm a complete hypocrite!"

"No, you aren't." Lily said. "I lied to you for two months about something that would end your relationship. You just liked a guy I wasn't interested in. I'm still the worse one here."

Mary rubbed her head. "Maybe, but- Merlin, Lily, I'm sorry. I don't know what to do with myself. I didn't even know he felt the same way until today." She buried her face in her hands.

"I knew!" Alice called from the bathroom. "He's not that bad at Transfiguration, you know!"

"Quiet, Alice!" Mary called.

"She figured me out, too." said Lily, grinning. "Alice, how are you such a genius about people's love lives?"

Alice appeared in the doorway. "Because I don't make such a mess of my own."

"Oh, wow, that was an insult!" Lily said. "Alice just insulted us!"

"Don't forget, you were completely single two months ago!" called Mary, laughing.

Alice just smiled at her before returning to the bathroom.

Mary's laughter died as she and Lily were alone again. "So." she said finally, extending her hand. "Are we all right?"

Lily bit her lip. "Well, honestly, I feel like you're still getting the worse end of the deal here. How about this- I owe you a huge favor, and then we're even."

Mary nodded. "Done. And don't think I won't take you up on that."

Lily grinned as she grabbed Mary's hand, and the two of them shook.

Alice appeared in the door again, beaming. "Oh, I knew you guys would figure it out."

"Of course we would." said Mary, standing and pulling Lily up. "Come on, I'm feeling sappy now. Let's hug or something."

Alice raised her soapy hands. "I've been washing my hands!"

"Doesn't matter." said Lily, pulling her towards the two of them. "We're having a group hug right now, and no one can do anything to stop it." She wrapped her arms around Mary and Alice, pulling them close to her.

When they pulled back into a tight huddle, they were all smiling again.

"I'm so glad we're here again." said Alice.

Lily nodded, squeezing Mary closer to her.

"Oh, and that's the other thing!" Alice raised a finger. "Lily's friends with Marlene, now, so we can hang out with her as a group!"

Mary turned to Lily. "What? When did this happen? You guys finally managed to become friends?"

Lily smiled. "Sort of. She gave me some very good advice. Another hug?"

"No, that's too much." said Mary, extricating herself. "If we get too caught up in this, we'll never sleep." Alice was still watching them fondly. "Would you stop?" Mary said, although there was no real heat behind it. "I feel like Lily and I are your daughters or something."

"I feel like you are, too." Alice said, and both Mary and Lily groaned at that.

"You're right, Mary." said Lily. "That's enough for one night. Good night to both of you."

"Good night." Mary said, moving to get her pajamas off of the floor so she could change into them.

Alice hadn't moved **.** "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the pixies bite." she murmured.

"Mum!" Lily and Mary whined almost simultaneously, and then all three girls dissolved into giggles.

* * *

After that, things were as normal as they'd ever been since before she'd gotten her tattoo. She, Mary, and Alice were back to being friends, they no longer spent much time with the Marauders, and Mary and Lily were even Herbology partners again, thankfully. The only differences were smaller, less noticeable things- the way James politely greeted Lily whenever he saw her and even made time for conversation if Mary wasn't around, the way Marlene and Frank occasionally joined their homework sessions, the way Mary and Peter spent a lot of time looking at each other when they thought no one was watching.

"Just ask him out!" Lily said. It was a warm day, one of the few in April with no rain, and she, Mary, Alice, and Marlene were celebrating by spending it on the grounds. "You know he likes you, you know I don't care, why not just do something about it?"

Mary sat up. "Because I'm going to get my tattoo, actually."

"What?" Lily asked. Alice gaped at her.

"When did you decide this?" said Marlene.

Mary shrugged. "A couple days ago. I was thinking I might go in today, since they accept drop-ins on the weekend and all."

The other girls looked at each other. "What?" Lily said again.

Mary grinned slightly. "Hey, it's like you were always saying, Lily, the tattoo is really more my business, I wanted to make the decision by myself. And I know you're happy without your tattoo, Alice, but you've liked Frank for years, not weeks, and anyways, I see how happy Marlene and Ludo are and I want a chance at some of that." She kicked Marlene's ankle. "A little too happy, honestly."

Marlene just smirked. "Hey, we're both adults, and we already know we're going to get married as soon as we graduate, why wait?"

"You know your grandparents tried to kick my mother out of the family for exactly what you're doing now, right?" said Mary.

Alice and Lily traded glances nervously. "What else are you two thinking about after graduation, Marlene?" Alice asked.

"Ludo wants to be a Quidditch star, of course." said Marlene. "I think I want to be a Healer, especially because of everything going on. I do want to do my part and help, you know."

Alice nodded. "I guess using the tattoos right now is good in a way. So you can go ahead and find the person you're supposed to be with before things get too bad."

"Doesn't work for everyone." said Marlene.

Lily looked up, fully aware of where Marlene was trying to lead the conversation. "Yeah, wonder if there've been any, like, Death Eaters and Aurors?"

Mary lay back on her elbows. **"** Nah, the tattoos probably wouldn't do that."

"What is the problem, Lily?" Marlene asked. "I mean, sorry, it's not really my business, but if you know you and him are soulmates, what are you waiting for?"

Alice and Mary were silent, Mary staring up at the sky, Alice watching Lily.

"Um. It's not that simple." Lily said.

"Why not?"

"Well, he still thinks I have Peter, for one." said Lily, shifting nervously. "And two..." She bit her lip. "Two, nothing. Never mind."

"Lily, I'm fine with it." said Mary. "Honestly."

"You- you are?"

Mary was still staring upwards, not looking at Lily. "Yeah, I mean, I'm getting my tattoo today, so it shouldn't really matter whether he dates anyone else, you know?"

Lily felt the news sink in slowly with a mix of shock and excitement. "I'd- I'd still have to talk to him."

"Then do it." Marlene said.

Alice reached across the ground, squeezing Lily's hand. "I think he'd forgive you."

The initial shock slowly subsided into elation, quickly followed by panic at the thought of actually telling him. Lily rubbed her hands together nervously. "Um, I don't know if he would even- I mean, he was just saying he wanted to set me up with Peter the other day, and I'm sure he's still upset over the fight we had, he might not even like me-"

"He does." said Mary. "Trust me."

"Okay." Lily looked down at the ground, rubbing her hands together again. "All right."

"Good." said Marlene. "Mary, you want any of us to go with you to your appointment?"

"Nah, I'm fine." Mary said. She rolled over onto her side, pushing herself up. "I should probably get going, actually, if I want to get to the office before it closes." She stood, stretching.

"Yeah, I might leave, too." said Marlene, following Mary. "Ludo wants to spend some time together too, since it's so nice."

Alice stood as well. "Oh, I'll go with you. Frank's probably with him."

Mary offered a hand to Lily. "Wanna walk me inside, since these two are ditching us for their boyfriends?"

"Yeah, sure." said Lily, taking Mary's hand to pull herself up. They waved to Marlene and Alice and set off for the castle.

* * *

"So." Lily said as soon as they were alone.

"So."

"You excited? Nervous?"

Mary shrugged. "A little of both. But what's the harm, really? They have to give you someone you're good with, don't they?"

Lily nodded. "I guess."

"You should tell him." Mary said. "Seriously, I'm fine with it."

"Are you sure?" Lily pushed open the door to the Entrance Hall **,** allowing Mary to walk through first. "You guys went out for a few months, and it's barely been three weeks-"

Mary shrugged as they continued up the stairs. "Well, half of that time we were fighting, and another third I was probably into someone else, so- yeah, it's fine. Honestly, I was relieved to end things. It just hurt a little that he went and got his tattoo right away, you know? And then you told me about yours-"

"Yeah, that was not good timing, I'm really sorry about that." said Lily, pushing her hair out of her face. "I just was worried you'd find out from him, or you'd see my wrist accidentally, and be even angrier."

Mary considered it as they climbed another staircase. "You know, you're probably right. I mean, maybe you should have told me earlier, but I am glad you told me."

"Thank you." Lily said. "And I'm glad you didn't stay mad at me."

"Me too." said Mary. "Look at us, Alice would be so proud."

Lily giggled. "You know what? I'll go one further. I hope you get a soulmate you deserve, even though I don't think they could ever be good enough to deserve you."

Mary shoved her. "Lily, ew, that's so sweet. And I would say the same, except I know who you're gonna be stuck with."

"We'll see." said Lily.

"Nah, come on." said Mary. "You could go the Alice route, but you two have too much history by now. At least tell him so you both have a chance to decide whether you want to work things out."

"Maybe." Lily said as they approached the door to the Hospital Wing. She stopped, hugging Mary. "Good luck, and remember, Alice and I don't care who your soulmate is, or if you want to be with them."

"Thanks." Mary said, stepping back. "And good luck with your thing, too."

Lily waved as Mary disappeared inside the Hospital Wing.

* * *

Lily camped out in the Common Room for a an hour, doing some reading and waiting for Mary to return. Not too many people were inside since the day was so nice, but the Marauders were, being loud as always. Lily couldn't help but feel especially aware of their presence today, after her conversation with Mary.

"Would you two stop snogging for one second?" James snapped, apparently in response to Remus and Sirius.

There was a pause before Remus replied. "You literally got us both detention and nearly gave Sirius pneumonia." he said.

"It was just a little rain, he was fine-"

"You weren't the one who had to take care of him!"

"Yeah, Prongs, I could've died!"

"It is a little gross." said Peter.

Sirius gasped dramatically. "What, Wormy, is this because we're both guys?"

"No! Of course not! It's because you won't stop snogging everywhere!"

"Thank you, Peter!" James said. "Wormtail's got my back."

"Maybe it's from all that matchmaking." Remus said. "You did your job a little too well."

"Yes, exactly!" said Sirius. "I just can't resist Moony anymore!" There were more kissing noises.

"Ugh." said James. "Lily, please save me from this!"

Lily looked up, wondering if he'd noticed her eavesdropping. "What?"

James had turned around to face her, or possible to face away from Remus and Sirius. "They won't stop kissing, make them stop!"

Lily smirked. "I've got no sympathy for you after having to put up with you and Mary for months. Besides, Remus is right, it is sort of our fault." She turned back to her book, flipping a page.

"Aw, come on." James's voice grew closer, and he leaned on the back of her couch. "You're a prefect, isn't there something you can do?"

Lily met his eyes. "Only if they're out after hours."

"Well, do it for Peter, then. Wormtail, make her make them stop."

Peter, still sitting over with Remus and Sirius, shrugged. "Nah."

James threw his hands up in the air. "Fine. Everyone's betraying me today. Enjoy your book."

Lily stuck out her tongue at him, and he made a face back at her before rejoining the other Marauders. She couldn't just tell him with the Marauders there, could she? Unless she asked to talk to him alone, like the way she'd told Mary...before Mary had stopped talking to her for two weeks. She was still trying to build up the courage when Mary climbed through the portrait hole, followed by Alice.

"Hey." Lily said, walking towards them at once. "Hey, Mary, how'd it go?"

Mary raised her eyebrows, lifting her bandaged wrist. "So far, nothing. What about you?"

"Um..." Lily glanced back at the Marauders. James was watching them, although he may have just been noticing Mary's bandage. "I- didn't get a chance to, actually. Maybe later."

Mary, for a moment, looked like she was about to say something, and then she closed her eyes. "Right, right, no pressuring you. This isn't another repeat of last time."

"And no pressuring you." Lily said.

Mary examined her wrist as she sat back down on the couch. "Right. But you know, I think it's been long enough. Might as well get it over with." She peeled off the bandage and held her wrist up. There, in neat handwriting, were the words _Marc Bouvier._ "I...have no idea who this is."

"Looks French." Lily said, watching Mary's face carefully for any traces of disappointment.

Alice seemed to be thinking along the same lines. She squeezed Mary's thigh. "That's exciting, you'll get to go to France!"

"And it sounds kind of cute, doesn't it?" Lily said. "Mary and Marc. I can't wait to meet him!"

Mary was still staring at the name, expression unchanged. Finally, she shook her head. "You know what?"

"What?" Lily asked worriedly.

"France is a long way away." Mary stood, crossing over to the Marauders. "Hey, Peter, can I talk to you?"

Alice and Lily exchanged glances as Peter stood up. The other Marauders continued whatever conversation they'd been having, but their eyes kept flicking over to Peter and Mary.

"Uh...yeah?" Peter shoved his hands into his robe pockets nervously.

Mary fidgeted, rubbing her wrist. "Look. I just wanted to- yes."

"What?"

"You asked a few days if I wanted to go to Hogsmeade with you the next time we went, and the answer is yes."

Now the Marauders had fallen silent, too, watching the scene unfold.

Peter looked as though he'd just been told he was elected Minister of Magic. "You- you really want to go? With me?"

Mary took a step closer. "Yes, absolutely!"

"Wait, hold on, before..." Peter began, stepping back. "You're- you're not mine."

"What?"

Peter lifted his empty wrist up. "I- I should've told you before, we're not soulmates. I don't know who mine is, I haven't felt any reaction. Not that I mind, I was just worried you might not wanna-"

Mary lifted her wrist, showing the writing there. "I don't mind."

"Wait, wait, wait." James said. "Wormtail, you have your tattoo?"

Peter's eyes widened. "Uh...yeah? I, uh, got it over winter break. My parents wanted me to." His gaze flicked over to Lily.

"Why'd you never say anything?" Sirius said.

Peter shrugged. "Nobody asked."

"Wait, but then, you knew Lily wasn't your soulmate." said James. "And you never said-"

"Well, everyone seemed to want us to be together, so I just sort of went along with it." Peter rubbed the back of his neck. "No harm done, right, Lily?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah, it's fine." James turned around to stare at her.

"But then-" he said, and Lily crossed her arms, hiding her wrist.

"So you knew neither of us were it." Mary said. Thankfully, James turned back around. "And you still asked me out-"

"I'm sorry about that." said Peter. "You're right that it wasn't fair to Lily, and I should've told you about my tattoo, I just thought maybe I had a chance and got excited. And Lily told me it was fine."

"Did you?" Mary asked, looking over at her.

Lily shrugged, drumming her fingers nervously against the inside of her arms. "He didn't mention it was you, but I told him he could date other people. And you know I'm fine with it."

"Great." Mary said, giving Lily a bright smile. "I'm glad." She turned back to Peter, tapping on her wrist. "And if you're fine with this guy showing up someday..."

Peter made a face. "Looks like someone from Beauxbatons." He puffed out his chest, striking a pose. "I can take him."

Mary giggled and kissed him. For a moment, Lily couldn't wipe the smile off of her face, and then Peter started to kiss back and it quickly grew awkward. Lily and Alice turned around to grin at each other.

"They'll be good for each other." Alice said.

Lily nodded. "Yeah. I'm so happy they've worked it out."

Mary walked back over to the couch, leading Peter by the hand. "Talking about me, ladies?"

Lily stood and hugged Mary. "Only good things."

"Congratulations, Mary." Alice said, following Lily's example.

"There's one thing I'm still confused about." said James. He had been staring into space since he'd last spoken. "If Lily has Peter as a soulmate, and he has his tattoo, shouldn't names have appeared on both their wrists when Lily got her tattoo?"

Lily's throat was suddenly dry. This was not the way she wanted him to find out. Thankfully, Alice saved her. "Maybe it's because it's unrequited." she said. "Peter doesn't have Lily, so her getting a tattoo wouldn't trigger it on his wrist."

"No, but it would still appear on Lily's wrist, right?" James looked down at the table. "I mean, I've got a name on mine, and it's unrequited."

Sirius frowned. "You're right, Prongs. And Evans didn't have a name on her wrist."

Lily took a step back, heart beating faster. "How would you know?"

"I saw it." said Sirius. "Night before Prongs' birthday, remember? It was blank."

"You must be remembering wrong." said Mary, raising an eyebrow. "Alice and I live with her, we saw her tattoo, it's Peter."

Peter frowned. "Then why'd Lily have to do that test thing, the first night she got it?"

Lily licked her lips. "Um-"

"Her bandage was still on." said Remus, and Lily could've kissed him. "She didn't know yet."

"No, I'm sure it was blank!" Sirius said, standing. "I would've remembered seeing Wormtail's name on there. Just let me see-" Before Lily could stop him, Sirius closed the distance between them, pushing her sleeve back to reveal her wrist. He dropped it almost immediately, eyes wide, taking a step back from her.

"What?" James asked, craning his neck to see Lily's wrist. "What is it?"

Lily roughly pulled her sleeves back down. "Would you just drop it?"

"It wasn't me." said Peter wonderingly, and Lily realized he must've seen it too, from where he stood beside Mary.

"Oh, Merlin." said Sirius.

"What's going on, was it blank?" James rose out of his seat. "Because that makes no sense-"

"Maybe you've got the rules wrong for unrequited soulmates?" Mary said, elbowing Peter to shut him up.

"No, because mine is unrequited, and I've still got a name, unless-"

"It's not any of your business who I have." Lily snapped.

Sirius shook his head. "Oh, Merlin, Evans, that is messed up."

"What? What is it?" James said. Sirius didn't respond, apparently still in shock, and James took a few steps forward. "Come on, everyone else knows but me. And you know perfectly well why I want to know, you know my tattoo-"

Remus stood, reaching out for him. "James-"

James shook him off. "No, come on, who is it?" He pushed past Alice and reached for Lily's wrists.

"I told you," Lily said, voice rising, "to leave it alone!" She whipped her hands out of his grasp, lifting them over her head.

Immediately, James went still with shock. Too late, Lily realized that, by raising her arms, she had inadvertently let her sleeves fall and exposed both wrists.

She dropped her arms. For a moment, there was total silence.

Remus coughed. "I think we'd better be going to bed now, don't you?"

"Yeah, I think you're right, I think we should all turn in early tonight." said Alice, grabbing Mary. "Except for Lily and James, they should stay up a bit."

"Come on, Wormtail." Sirius said, and the five of them left as quickly as they could for the boy's dorm.

Without them, the room was so quiet that Lily thought she could hear the portraits breathing. Reluctantly, she met James's eyes- he was staring at her, expression unreadable.

"Can I see it?" he asked quietly.

"James-"

"Lily, please." James said. Wordlessly, Lily offered her wrist to him, and he took hold of it, pulling her sleeve back. Lily still couldn't tell what he was thinking as he examined the name on her wrist. "How long?"

"Um." Lily yanked her wrist away and covered the name up again with her sleeve. "Well, the name appeared when you got yours..."

James closed his eyes. "No. How long have you known."

"Since- since I got it." Lily said, folding her arms. "I- I ran into you the first day,and I...knew."

"So that's why you told Mary you had a Marauder." James said, rubbing his face. "And that's why you were never really that interested in Peter. And why...Merlin, Lily." He stared into space for a second, and then looked straight at Lily, stepping forward. "You bloody knew."

Lily took a step back. "James-"

"You knew, all this time, and you didn't say anything." James said, still walking towards her.

"James, I'm sorry, just let me explain." Lily dodged around an armchair. "You- you were dating Mary, all right? And I didn't want to possibly break you guys up, and it was before the Frank and Alice thing, I honestly wasn't sure that I didn't detest you-"

"And after me and Mary broke up? The past three weeks?"

Lily was backed up into a table now, with nowhere else to go. "I wanted to make sure Mary was okay with it, all right?" He was still coming forward. "And then- I was going to tell you this afternoon, but the Marauders were there-" She cringed, lifting her arms in front of her face. "-and I didn't want you to find out by accident, and _would you stop with that menacing walk already_!"

James gently took her wrists, guiding them away from her face. "Oh, Lily Evans." he said, and Lily looked up to see he was grinning at her. "I am so, so mad at you." He leaned down, cradling her face with one hand, and kissed her.

Lily was so caught off guard that it took her a moment to reciprocate, but she did, throwing her arms around James's neck and kissing him back as enthusiastically as she'd wanted to during Truth or Dare. It was the same swooping feeling, like someone had cast a Cheering Charm on her head, and when she pulled away, it took her a moment to open her eyes.

"Wow."

James grinned. "Wow."

Lily hit him lightly on the shoulder. "You ass."

"You waited three months to tell me." James said, resting one hand on either side of her at the table. "Three whole months." He kissed her again for a long moment, and Lily wrapped her arms around his back.

She shrugged when he pulled away. "Fair point. But you understand my reasons, don't you?"

James considered it. "Yeah, I suppose I do." Lily grabbed his shirt and pulled him down for another kiss, and they didn't stop this one until Lily had hopped up onto the table to stop it from digging into her back.

James rested her forehead against hers. "You know how happy I am right now?"

Lily giggled. "Funny, that was the opposite reaction I had when I found out."

"Lily."

"Sorry." She kissed him again. "I really was going to tell you, I swear, I was just waiting to make sure Mary was okay with it."

James's face grew serious. "Is she? I hadn't even thought of that."

"Yeah, she is." said Lily. "Although she was a little thrown that you got the tattoo so quickly."

James ducked his head. "Yeah, sorry, it was...that game of Truth or Dare, I started to suspect."

"Really?" asked Lily. "Over that kiss?"

James leaned back, running a hand through his hair. "Well, I knew I liked you by that point, but I was trying to ignore it, honestly, because of Mary and Peter and that fight. That kiss made me realize maybe it shouldn't be ignored."

Lily stood up, grabbing his hands. "You knew you liked me already?"

"Oh yeah." said James, grinning. "Honestly, I think I figured out I liked you again when you yelled at me the night of that Quidditch game."

"What?" Lily laughed.

"It's not as weird as it sounds!" James said, stepping back. "Everything you said was true, and the loyalty you had for Mary, and honestly, I needed to hear about how badly I was treating her. Which of course was the worst possible time to figure out I had feelings for you, especially since you finally told Peter afterwards, and I felt terrible about that whole business. So I stuffed it down and tried to be a good boyfriend and a good friend, and then, that day when we were watching Remus and Sirius at the lake, I just looked at you, I don't know, and realized how screwed I was." He looked back at Lily, smirking. "When did you realize? I'm sure your story's no better."

"Oh, I don't even know." said Lily, letting go of James to push her hair out of her face. "Marlene pointed it out for me, actually."

James snorted. "What?"

"Yeah, the day she and Ludo got together." Lily said. "We had a short discussion that basically ended in her telling me the only reason I disliked her was because I was jealous of her relationship with you."

"And then you tried to start something with Peter." said James.

Lily nodded, looking down. "Yeah. Not the best move. Thankfully he was never too attached to the idea." She looked up again. "I was trying to get over you the whole time we were setting up Remus and Sirius, that's why that got so weird. And then- that full moon really set it in stone for me. I honestly just wanted to snog you better that whole time." Her hands traveled up his arms to his shoulders. "So I shouted at you and got you to leave me alone."

James laughed. "Oh, yeah. That explains that. You were totally into me, weren't you?"

"Shut up." Lily said, kissing him again. "So I guess we're a thing now, right?"

"Seems that way." James said, kissing her. "You know, I think my fifth-year self just wet himself in excitement."

Lily wrinkled her nose. "You're disgusting."

"What does that say about you?" James asked, waggling his eyebrows.

In answer, Lily kissed him again, grabbing onto his arms while he pulled her forward by her waist. It took them both a moment to pull away this time. "I think I just figured out a way to get back at Sirius and Remus for their public snogging." Lily whispered.

James laughed, pulling her into a hug. "Oh, Evans, I love it when you get devious on me."

They broke apart when they heard people coming down the stairs- the rest of the Marauders were returning, with Mary and Alice in tow. Almost immediately, the group split, the boys heading for James, the girls for Lily.

"Prongs, mate, we need to talk!" Sirius said, taking James's arm and dragging him away.

Alice copied the motion with Lily. "Er, yeah, Lily, I wanted to ask you about something." She looked at Mary and took a breath. "I have this friend." she said, and stopped.

Lily blinked at her odd tone. "Yes?"

"Um." Alice looked away from her. "He, um, had a fight with his soulmate-"

"Because he didn't tell his soulmate who he was." Mary supplied. "So now they're mad at each other, even though they actually do like each other-"

"-and they need to work it out." Alice continued. "But we don't know how to get them to talk. Er, you're good with this stuff, do you have any advice?"

Lily squinted at her for a moment before realizing. She looked over at James to see he was having the same conversation **.** He met her eyes, and Lily reached out a hand to him.

The room quieted as James walked over and took Lily's hand. For a moment, no one said anything.

"Well!" Sirius said at last. "Looks like that won't be necessary after all!"

"Were they pulling the 'I have a friend' trick on you, too?" Lily asked.

James nodded. "I can't believe you guys assumed we'd need it."

"Well, we figured you were going to fight." said Alice. "We didn't realize there would be any..." She gestured to their joined hands.

James grinned. "Any what? Any of this?" He leaned over and kissed Lily. She let go of his hand to grab his shoulder, pulling him down further.

When they broke apart, Peter stared at them, horrified. "You two are going to be just as bad as Moony and Pads, aren't you." he said.

Lily just smiled. "We'd considered the idea."


	16. Epilogue

The next time that Mary and Lily did homework together, they took it outside, so Frank, Marlene, and Alice could join them later. When Peter and James found them and sat down, there was a bit of an awkward pause. The four of them hadn't really been alone together since everything had been revealed.

"Can we just acknowledge that we've all made some mistakes?" asked James.

Peter shrugged. "I'm up for that."

"Lily lied about her tattoo, Peter went along with it even though he knew it was a lie, you and I kept dating each other even though we were interested in other people..." Mary counted on her fingers. "Yeah, all right, I think we're all about even."

"Good." said Lily. "We've had enough drama over the past few months. I'm sure the others would hex us if we tried to start it up again."

"The others would do what?" Sirius asked, plopping down next to James. Remus, beside him, untangled his fingers from Sirius's for a moment in order to set his books on the ground, and then sat next to Sirius, opening up one of their assignments.

"The others would turn into a bunch of nosy gits." James said, tossing a stick at Sirius.

Sirius gasped as though he'd been wounded. "Evans! Aren't you supposed to reign him in now that you two are all-" He gestured at the way they were sitting, hips and legs pressed together. "Soulmate-y?"

"Only when I think he needs reigning in." Lily said. "This is justified."

"Hey." James said, and Mary giggled.

Lily turned to press a kiss to James's lips. "Joking."

James grinned back at her as she pulled away. "I figured. But I also figured, if I acted offended, you'd kiss me."

"You sneak." Lily said, although she couldn't help but laugh. She turned back to the group to see that they were watching the two of them with expressions of mild horror.

"Merlin, you two are gross." Remus said, shaking his head.

Sirius pat him on the hand sympathetically. "I think we brought it on ourselves, here, Moony. But I can make you feel better."

Remus arched an eyebrow at him, smirking. "I'm listening."

"Peter, let's be a nice, normal couple." Mary said quickly. "None of this sappy stuff they've got going on here."

Peter, eyes wide, nodded vigorously.

"Hey, all." The group looked up- Marlene was standing there, arm wrapped around Ludo's, although, from the way her nails were digging into Ludo's wrist, it looked a bit like she was keeping Ludo there. "Mind if we join?"

James raised his eyebrows. "Hello, Marlene. Bagman."

"Maybe we should just go-" Ludo muttered, but Marlene pulled him forward.

"Oh, now, don't say his name like that." she said. "I thought we'd already worked everything out. He and I have both apologized to Sirius, we've all had our little talks, I'm tired of feeling like a third, or fifth, or in this case seventh wheel when I'm spending time with anyone, can we at least tolerate each other?"

Looking around, Lily had to admit she had a point. She and James were practically in each other's laps, Sirius had his arm around Remus, and Mary and Peter were still smiling at each other. And that didn't even compare to Alice and Frank walking up the hill towards them hand-in-hand, trading glances nervously.

"Oh." Frank said, looking between Ludo, Marlene, and the rest of the group. "Er, is this where we're studying today?"

"Yeah, we figured the more minds, the better." said Marlene, and her eyes found Lily's. "What do you say, Lily, you think you guys could use some Hufflepuff insight?"

Lily bit her lip, hesitating, but only for a moment. "Yeah, I think we could, actually. If I remember correctly, Ludo's pretty good at Herbology, he could definitely help us out." Ludo met her gaze, somewhere between shocked and uncertain.

"Oh, good." said Alice. She squeezed in between Mary and Lily, pulling Frank down with her. "It'll be good to be a group again."

Mary snorted. "Again? When were we ever a group the first time? Between Lily and Marlene, and Ludo and James, and Lily and James, and then these past few months-"

"Hey, hey, hey." James said. "We agreed to acknowledge we'd all made mistakes and leave it at that, remember?"

As Sirius made a wisecrack in response that set off the group into a different conversation, Lily couldn't help but look around at all of them, at all of the friendships and relationships surrounding her, both old and new. Ludo, slightly more relaxed now, was digging into Frank's bag for a quill, and Marlene was laughing at something that James was saying, although her hand was still curled around Ludo's bicep. Frank had crawled over to the other side of the circle to give Remus help on his essay, while Alice, still between Lily and Mary, looked on with such fondness that Lily had to avert her eyes. Mary winked at Lily knowingly before turning to kiss Peter for something he had said, and then they both ducked as Sirius threw James's stick at them, and, although Remus scolded him for knocking his book onto the ground, he was smiling.

James, meanwhile, nudged Lily with his elbow. "What are you thinking?" he whispered. "You've got a funny look on your face."

Lily couldn't quite put it into words, the warmth she felt surrounding them in that moment. "Nothing." she said after a moment. "Just...happy."

James nodded, taking her hand, before turning back to the group, and Lily looked down at their intertwined fingers, his name on her wrist.

She'd once heard that love had its own, ancient magic, stronger and more powerful than anything in the modern world. Today, lounging in her favorite spot at Hogwarts, surrounded by her friends, curled up with James...Lily had never believed it more.

* * *

 **A/N: Voila! Mini epilogue! And since it's the last chapter, I just have to say, thank you so much for the reviews, positive and negative and everywhere in between! I know I've been terrible about responding to them but I really did read and appreciate every single one! Thank you also to everyone who stuck with this story through the random six month hiatus, and everyone who read this story at all! You guys have been very good to me and I wish you all the best!**


End file.
